


Adrift

by vaqhma



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-10-12 19:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 27,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10497492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaqhma/pseuds/vaqhma
Summary: Wyatt struggles to hold it together after Lucy goes missing. Takes place after 1x16 and will be a slowburn





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all, this is my first time trying a fanfic, but I couldn't get Timeless out of my head! This takes place pretty much right after the finale and will have POVs from Wyatt and Lucy at the very least. I took some artistic liberties with Wyatt's family history and as a trigger warning, there are references to childhood abuse and domestic violence in this chapter. Also this will be very angsty!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters

Chapter One

_Wyatt_

He had lost her. Again.

_This. This was why he couldn't be open to possibilities._

Every time he allowed himself to hope. Every woman he allowed to get close. They all ended up dead. Because of him. His mother. His sister. Jessica. Now –

_No. He couldn't allow himself to think that Lucy might be dead too._

"Where the hell is she!" Wyatt slammed his fist holding that damned crumpled up note into the wall of Carol Preston's home. They had searched every possible spot in Carol's home. They hadn't found her yet. They hadn't found anyone. Only that trail of blood that led to nowhere. His vision closed until all he could see was that smear of blood. Suddenly he couldn't breathe. The panic became over-whelming, digging its claws into his heart and his lungs.

_*flash*_

_He was 6 years old. He could hear his parents screaming downstairs. He crept from his room to the top of the stairs. He could see a smear of blood on the wall at the foot of the stairs. The sight terrified him and he ran to hide in his safe place in the closet, where no one could find him. Where no one would ever find him._

_*flash*_

_He was 7, almost 8. His mom was pregnant and he was so excited to be the big brother to his new little sister. He would protect her from their dad. He was almost 8, almost a man. He could stand up to his dad now. He wasn't a baby anymore._

_*flash*_

_It was his 8th birthday. His dad was drunk and they were screaming again. His dad backhanded his mom and he watched as his mom's lip split and the blood splattered across the floor as she stumbled and fell. He screamed and threw himself at his dad, only to get thrown against the wall. He blacked out._

_*flash*_

_He came to. The world was spinning and he had a hard time seeing anything. But he was aware enough to hear his dad screaming that his mother was a whore and the baby wasn't his. Aware enough to hear the gunshots. And then the thundering silence._

_*flash*_

"Whoa, man. You alright?" He jolted as he felt Rufus's hand on his shoulder and felt himself stumble unsteadily.

"Sit down," Rufus commanded as he led him to the chair. "Breathe, man. We'll find her. Lucy, she's one of us and we won't stop until we find her."

Wyatt focused on Rufus's words and took a deep breath. He could almost hear an audible pop as his surroundings came back in Technicolor, the images of his past slowly fading away.

What the hell? He hadn't had a flashback to his parents' murder-suicide in years. He thought he had worked through that crap. He shook himself. He didn't have the luxury of wallowing in the past, he had to find Lucy. He forced himself to stand, willed the tremor out of his limbs.

"What do we know?" He demanded from Agent Christopher.

She eyed him with a look that was equal parts skepticism and empathy. "Not much," she said. "We know that the blood type is A positive, the same as about 100 million people in the US, Lucy and Carol included. The blood could be from either one of them or neither. We'll have to send it out to the lab to know more. What does the note say?" She nodded to his fist.

The note. He had forgotten about the note. He had found the note crumpled up and next to the trashcan, as if someone had carelessly tried to throw it away and missed. He doubted he would have found it if he hadn't been so frantic to find any hint of where Lucy might have gone. He slowly smoothed it out and read it aloud.

_Wyatt,_

_I hope you find this note. Rittenhouse has the mothership. Get Flynn. You, Rufus, and Agent Christopher HAVE to get the lifeboat somewhere safe and go after them. You can't let them destroy history._

_Stay safe. Trust NO ONE bu_

The note cut off abruptly, the last two letters ending in a scrawl. Wyatt closed his eyes as his hand fisted around the note again. In terms of helping them find her, the note provided them with exactly nothing. Typical Lucy, always putting history before her own safety. Always putting everything and everyone before her own safety. It was maddening and yet, it was why they all loved her.

"How can Rittenhouse possibly have the mothership? We haven't even been able to transport the mothership back to Mason Industries yet," he heard Rufus challenge. "Besides which, I thought you had them all arrested."

"I have no – " Agent Christopher began to reply, but paused and walked away to answer her cell phone when it began ringing. Wyatt and Rufus watched as her face paled. After a few minutes, she hung up and walked back towards them with a heaviness in her step. "That was my supervisor. All of our agents guarding the mothership were just found dead and the mothership is missing."

"How the hell could Rittenhouse have stolen the mothership?" Rufus repeated. "They don't even have a pil- Emma," he suddenly breathed. "They have Emma. Or Emma is one of them. Maybe Emma is a double agent. Or triple agent? Maybe they kidnapped her. But wouldn't Flynn have suspected something? And why do we need to get Flynn? Seriously, how can we trust him? Are we forgetting that he had Al Capone _shoot_ me? And why would they take Lucy's mom? Are they holding her hostage to make Lucy cooperate? How could Lucy even have known that Rittenhouse stole - "

"This is all fine and good," Wyatt interrupted Rufus's nervous rambling, his frustration mounting. "But it doesn't help us find Lucy."

"Wyatt," Agent Christopher said patiently. "You read Lucy's note. She's right. We can't let Rittenhouse destroy history. They've already killed five of my agents. We have to secure the lifeboat and go after them."

" _No_." Wyatt said in a deadly tone. "We're a team. We find Lucy first. She's our historian. We won't stand a chance if we don't know what we're up against. What time period we're going to. We won't even know if Rittenhouse changed anything or not. Lucy is our priority here. Not Rittenhouse. Lucy. Whoever took her already has a 3-hour head start on us, we can't afford to lose any more time."

"He's right," Rufus said quietly. "We can't do this without Lucy. We won't."

Wyatt felt a surreal sense of _deja vu_ to their return from the Alamo, when Lucy and Rufus had so staunchly fought for him to stay on the team. If only it was that simple this time around.

"Alright," Agent Christopher sighed. "But first we need to secure the lifeboat, otherwise we have nothing."

Wyatt needed to hit something. Hard and repeatedly. He needed to be out there looking for Lucy _now_ , not securing a damn time machine, but he knew Agent Christopher was right. If they allowed Rittenhouse to get a hold of the lifeboat, there would be absolutely nothing they could do to stop them from destroying their timeline.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments and reviews! Chapter 2 is from Lucy's POV and fills in some of the gaps that are missing from Wyatt's POV. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own these characters :)

Chapter Two

_Lucy_

The first thing Lucy noticed was the abject silence, broken only by the earsplitting tick of a clock. She fought to wake up, but every movement felt like she was back in that car, being weighed down and drowning under water. Where was she? What was going on? What had happened? The memory of something important niggled in the back of her consciousness, but the effort to recall it was too exhausting and Lucy succumbed to the darkness again.

When she awoke the second time, it was to a splitting headache, a metallic taste in her mouth, and a tongue that felt like sandpaper. She managed to open her eyes a slit and found herself in darkness. She groaned and tried to get up, immediately regretting the movement as waves of nausea washed over her. She was instantly reminded of how it felt waking up in the post-op room after having an emergency appendectomy when she was 14. Had she been drugged? She felt the back of her head, where the pain was most insistent, and her fingers came away sticky.

 _Concussion._ But how? When?

Taking care to avoid another bout of nausea, Lucy slowly sat up. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, but what she saw wasn’t comforting. She had been confined to a room just large enough to fit the twin mattress that she had been laying on. There was a tiny sliver of light coming from beneath the door, but no handle on the door itself. Her claustrophobia began rising and she forced herself to breathe.

 _Fear is just a reaction_ , she reminded herself, repeating Houdini’s words of advice. _Focus on escaping._

Lucy took another deep breath, then gave a small cry of relief when she spied a small lamp next to the mattress. She lunged for it and managed to turn it on just as the nausea made an abrupt comeback and the room started spinning. _God damn all concussions,_ she thought violently as she started dry heaving, making the headache worse with each movement. She didn’t care, the dingy light made every painful moment worth it as the vestiges of the claustrophobia receded. She glanced up at the clock, shocked to see that it read 2:36. It had to be 2:36 in the morning, since the last time she remembered looking at a clock it had been past 3:00pm.

How the hell did she end up in this situation? She needed to remember what had happened, damn it! She couldn’t develop a plan unless she knew what the circumstances were.

 _Think,_ she demanded of herself. _You have to think. What was the last thing you remember?_

_Happiness. A feeling of absolute elation and lightness. They had succeeded in taking out Rittenhouse, she was going back to get Amy. And Wyatt. Wyatt was open to possibilities. What that meant, she didn’t know, but at least he was open to taking a chance now._

Lucy frowned, that wasn’t quite right. Something had intruded on that hope, blackening it, smothering out the light. _Amy._ _She had gone to tell her mother about Amy and to tell her mother she loved her one last time._ Suddenly the memories of what had happened came rushing back.

_11 hours earlier_

Lucy felt as if the world had tilted on its axis. Her mother was Rittenhouse. _She_ was Rittenhouse royalty, whatever that meant. She backed slowly away from her mother, needing the space to breathe.

“What do you mean Rittenhouse is _proud_ of me,” she asked cautiously. Of all the shocking things Carol had just told her, the idea that Rittenhouse was proud of her for getting the majority of their members arrested was the most terrifying.

“Oh, honey,” Carol reached forward and tucked a strand of Lucy’s hair behind her ear. She struggled not to flinch from her mother’s touch. “You didn’t honestly believe you could take down Rittenhouse, did you? Lucy, honey, we always knew what Ethan was doing. His darling little caper to collect supposed intel that could damn us. We took that as our opportunity to weed out the tainted from among our ranks. To purify Rittenhouse again. And when we had accomplished that goal, we told him to run, letting him believe that he had gotten away with it all. _You_ made all of that possible. We have a team taking care of him now. _You_ made it possible to finally have Flynn arrested and allow us to take control of the mothership. You were able to make Wyatt believe in possibilities again, to care for you, and because of that _you_ are going to provide the distraction we need to keep them from coming after us in the lifeboat.”

Lucy struggled to keep herself from hyperventilating. She had asked her grandfather to trust her. To make the ultimate sacrifice and to continue living a double life. A life where he could never be truly happy. She had damned him to that hell and now his death. She could feel tears burning in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall in front of her mother. After the many heated discussions of fate and free will with Rufus and Wyatt, Lucy had truly started to believe that she was making her own decisions, forging her own destiny, to hell with Rittenhouse and Flynn and predestination. Only now she knew that she was yet another pawn in the fate that Rittenhouse controlled as if they were God. She had asked Flynn to trust her, to make that leap of faith, merely for him to get arrested and lose his last chance of getting his wife and daughter back. She had led Wyatt to believe in possibilities once more and for what? For him to believe he lost and failed yet another person in his life? The fact that her _Rittenhouse_ mother had somehow been privy to that intimate conversation made her skin crawl. She didn’t know how she was going to be able to look any of them in the eye again. If she would ever have the opportunity to see them again.

Lucy took in a deep breath and steeled her shoulders. She was fighting for Amy and Ethan, who couldn’t fight back. She was fighting for Rufus and Jiya, who had found so much courage despite the world falling down around them. She was fighting for Flynn and Wyatt, who needed hope above all. Most importantly, she realized, she was fighting for herself. She had come a long way from the panic attacks in Nazi Germany and she would do whatever it took to get their fates back in their own hands again.

“What do you need me to do,” she asked her mother.

Carol beamed with pride.

_Present_

Lucy shuddered. The memory of her mother smiling like the Cheshire Cat when she agreed to work for Rittenhouse was repulsive and she struggled to reconcile the mother she knew growing up with the Carol Preston she met today. Yet when she scanned through her childhood, she couldn’t help but see the hand of Rittenhouse in every memory. She had been groomed to become the person she was today through the pressure to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She had never understood why she had been molded in the image of her mother while Amy had been allowed to be the free spirit that she was. Now she saw it was because she was Rittenhouse _royalty._ But that still didn’t ring true in her head, if Carol was Amy’s mother as well, then Amy would have also been Rittenhouse by the merit of her birth. What was so important about her mother that it would justify Amy’s non-existence? She had a difficult time believing that it was based solely on bloodlines. There had to be something more to the story. She was supposed to be some revered member of Rittenhouse herself, but she was concussed, likely drugged, and being confined.

 _If this is how they treat their royalty, I’d hate to see how they treat their prisoners_.

How had she ended up concussed anyway? She had agreed to work with Rittenhouse hadn’t she?

_10 1/2 hours earlier_

“You want me to do _what?”_ Lucy was horrified

“Lucy, you are meant to be with Noah,” Carol said warmly. “You know that he’s a direct descendent of David Rittenhouse and with you at his side, we can truly bring Rittenhouse to its true height. This has been planned since before your birth. You’ve always known this, you both grew up together knowing this, I don’t know why this is news to you. At first I was disappointed in you for pushing him away, but now I understand that it was to pull Wyatt in and it worked out so well. It isn’t necessary for you to _marry_ Noah, just as it wasn’t necessary for me to marry Benjamin, although it would be preferred.”

Lucy felt like she was going to throw up. She had gone from being deemed worthy as a broodmare and nearly raped by David Rittenhouse in 1780, to being deemed broodmare-worthy for his however-many-greats grandson in 2017. Dear God, she should have let Flynn take the shot. Every fiber in her being recoiled at the thought, but how much damage had been wrought by David Rittenhouse’s progeny over the centuries?

“Ex- excuse me,” she managed to stammer. “I- I just need to go freshen up and pack some things for the trip.

Lucy all but ran up the stairs, her thoughts racing frantically. She had to warn Rufus and Wyatt somehow. She couldn’t text them a message or call them and risk Rittenhouse intercepting the message. She spied her notepad on her dresser and grabbed a pen and began scribbling furiously. She was nearly done, when she heard her mother’s voice at the door.

“Honey? Noah’s on his way,” Carol said as she walked into the room.

Lucy whipped around to face her mother, crumpling the note in her hand and letting it drop on the other side of the dresser, praying it didn't land in the trash can next to the dresser.

 _Please let Wyatt’s anal retentive attention to detail find it_.

“Oh! I was just trying to decide what to pack, you never did say where we were going,“ she said lamely, hoping her mother wouldn’t notice.

“Bring warm clothes,” Carol patted her cheek, then sat on the bed as Lucy packed.

Lucy sighed inwardly. So much for writing a note to Wyatt.

The doorbell rang as Lucy finished stuffing some clothes into a duffel bag and she and her mother went down the stairs. Carol opened the door for Noah and suddenly all she could see was David Rittenhouse, grabbing her by the chin, commenting on her teeth, her skull proportions, her narrow hips, asking if she had reproduced yet. Ordering her to his bedchambers. All thoughts of following through on this plan to work with Rittenhouse in order to find a way to save them all fled her mind as the survival instinct to flee took over. She dropped the duffel bag and bolted for the back door.

“Lucy!” She heard her mother and Noah yell. A large warm hand grabbed her upper arm and jerked her back. She lost her footing on the hardwood floors and her head connected with the corner of the kitchen island. She suddenly felt a sense of detachment as if her mind had disconnected from her physical body. She could hear Noah’s voice somewhere above her apologizing.

“I’m sorry Lucy. I wish it didn’t have to be this way. But you’re not giving us any other choice.”

She felt a prick in the side of her neck and then everything went black.

_Present_

She felt indignant. Noah was a doctor, she had a damn concussion and he knocked her out with a sedative? Was he trying to kill her?

 _Scratch that thought._ She mused wryly. _You have no idea what they might be trying to do with you. Other than use you as a broodmare, of course._

Another thought danced at the edge of her reach. There was something significant in what Carol had said earlier. Something she hadn’t caught at first because she had been so appalled by what she had been hearing.

_“You were able to make Wyatt believe in possibilities again, to care for you, and because of that you are going to provide the distraction we need to keep them from coming after us in the lifeboat.”_

Oh dear God. This was _planned._ They knew she wasn’t going to cooperate with them. They had set this up as a trap.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Thank you so much for the lovely reviews and comments! I appreciate them more than you could know! The next chapter is up. I apologize, it's somewhat of a filler, but a very necessary filler. The next chapter should be a bit more exciting. :) Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: None of these characters are owned by me

 

Chapter Three

_Wyatt_

Wyatt hung his head in exhaustion, dangling a glass of cheap bourbon between his knees as he sat on the edge of his couch. For all the work they had done over the past twelve hours, they still had no sign of Lucy. The search was becoming altogether too reminiscent of the night he had lost Jessica and he could feel the guilt building. He never should have let Lucy go alone. They had had no idea what they were up against, he should have known better. How could he have been so naïve? He had just found her, only to lose her.

He could feel the warning signs of another flashback coming on. It was that sense of derealization, of the world starting to fade a little, that alerted him when he was paying attention to the symptoms. He struggled to push the memories aside, grounding himself in the here and now. He absorbed himself in the details of his carpet, the temperature in his living room, the faint sound of electronics in the background, the slight play of a draft against his skin, his mind and body slowly coming back together.

_Guess that damn military psychologist had something useful after all._

He tossed back the rest of the bourbon, with a wry smirk. Sure, the military psychologist had also advised him not to drink, but he was taking anything he could get. Wyatt sat back on his couch with a sigh, thinking back on the events earlier in the day.

They had managed to secure the lifeboat, with Mason's help, under the guise of transporting it back to its storage unit to make way for the mothership. They devised a cover story, telling the crew they had opted to go after Amy in the mothership instead as it was, quite frankly, a safer ride. Not to mention its handy little ninja vanish trick that would allow them to touch down somewhere other than a remote location that required them to hike miles. Of course, the mothership was gone, but they had managed to get back to Mason Industries before the Homeland Security agents there had been notified.

Agent Christopher had taken over the transportation of the time machine at that point, bypassing the storage unit and securing it in a new location, unknown to Mason. Agent Christopher still trusted Mason about as far as she could throw him, although, thinking about it, Wyatt wouldn't put it past Christopher to have some latent superpower ability to throw Mason a fair distance if she thought the situation warranted it. Still, Wyatt and Rufus were with her on their level of trust in Mason, no matter how helpful he had been lately.

While Agent Christopher had been off road tripping across California with a time machine, Wyatt and Rufus had returned to Mason Industries briefly before all hell broke loose when Homeland Security realized they had stolen the lifeboat. Again. Wyatt was really starting to lose his faith in the competency of Homeland Security, given the number of times their agents had been outsmarted. He was looking forward to telling Agent Christopher about his newly minted opinion and seeing her reaction.

The purpose of their little sidetrip had been for Rufus to crash Mason's systems with another, more robust virus to keep them from being tracked. In the meantime, Wyatt had stolen Mason's laptop since Rufus had had the brilliant idea of using Mason's new program to track Lucy's movements. And it had worked. Up to a point. They had footage of Noah approaching Carol's home around 15:30, then leaving about half an hour later with Lucy's mom and an unconscious Lucy. His gut tightened and his heart clenched as he recalled the images of Noah carrying Lucy out to his SUV. He hoped to God she was unconscious and not dead. He wanted to beat the shit out of Noah for doing whatever he had to Lucy, for carrying her like he had any right to touch her. And what the hell was going on with Carol? It almost looked like she was issuing orders to Noah, not the other way around.

Rufus had tracked them heading northeast, towards the Oregon border, when the feeds were suddenly scrambled. Not just one or two feeds. All of the feeds. The anxiety worked its way back into his system as he remembered the moment when they had realized the only group with that kind of power would have had to have been Rittenhouse. They weren't down after all. They had only stirred up the hornet's nest and pissed them off.

Wyatt stood up, mentally shaking off the fears that had been percolating since losing Lucy. As he went to his kitchen table and started automatically cleaning his gun, he began focusing on what information they possessed and how to move forward with it. They knew that Noah and Carol had been traveling northeast before the feeds had gone out. He figured that Noah had continued northeast as he suspected that Noah wasn't all that crafty of a guy and just did what he was told. Wyatt's best bet was a cabin in one of Oregon's national forests. It'd be densely forested, therefore difficult to pick up on a satellite, it'd likely be out of cell phone range, there would be no camera feeds they could hack into, and it would be difficult to access. Not to mention Oregon's national forests were extensive. It would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Rufus was planning on going through the scanned files of information that Ethan had provided to look for any properties that might be owned by a shell corporation in the area.

Impatient and unable to cope waiting, Wyatt had gone directly to the source and had sought out Ethan Cahill. Except once he arrived there, he had only found Ethan's caregiver, completely distraught. She had cried softly as she informed him that Ethan had died of a major heart attack, only a few hours earlier. A death that seemed, to him, extremely suspicious, given the time frame.

"Goddamnit!" He swore vehemently, startling himself out of his reverie. He felt utterly useless. Everyone else had had a purpose in their search for Lucy. Agent Christopher had secured the lifeboat. Rufus had crashed Mason's systems and tracked Lucy. Even Mason had helped provide the cover story needed to get the lifeboat out. All he had done was stand idly by, impatiently needing something, _anything,_ to do to help find Lucy.

Glancing outside, he realized it was daybreak and he needed to start packing. After Wyatt had called Agent Christopher to let her know of their suspicions about Rittenhouse's involvement in Lucy's kidnapping and Ethan's death, she had added finding a safe house to her to do list. Given Rittenhouse's reach, the team had all immediately decided their homes were no longer safe and they were planning on meeting at 09:00 to head to the safe house. Rufus was currently packing supplies for himself and Jiya, then he would leave and break Jiya out of the hospital. Wyatt smiled despite himself, the coder had turned into quite a badass.

As he left the kitchen to begin inventorying his weapons and packing supplies for the safe house, his cell phone began to ring. He glanced at it in surprise, they had all picked up burner phones, so it wouldn't be Rufus or Agent Christopher. He frowned at the _Unknown_ on the screen of his phone. Who the hell would be calling him at 06:00? He answered his phone reluctantly.

"This is Wyatt Logan. Who is this?"

Wyatt's heart seized when he heard the soft, whispered voice on the other end of the line.

" _Wyatt?"_

"Lucy? Lucy is that you? Oh my God, Lucy! Are you okay? Are you safe? Where are you? _Where are you?"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured that Wyatt would have been a Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles fan as a little boy, so I just had to throw the little Ninja Vanish Easter egg in there!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! The next chapter is done way earlier than I thought it would be. You guys... writing this chapter in Lucy's voice gave me life and I just couldn't stop after Wyatt's POV. And she kept on surprising me and making me laugh with her thoughts and where the storyline went. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Chapter Four

_Lucy_

Lucy took several deep breaths. If this was a trap, freaking out wasn't going to help anything.

_Let's be honest with ourselves, Lucy. Freaking out has never helped anything._

She rolled her eyes at her inner voice of reason. She had to come up with a plan. What would Wyatt do?

_WWWD? Oh my God, Lucy. You are seriously losing your mind!_

She was never telling Wyatt about this. Ever. Personally, she was going to blame the concussion. Or the drugs. Maybe both. Still, she gazed around the room.

_He'd be looking for anything he could use as a weapon._

Her eyes landed on the lamp again. Shades of Watergate. Except this lamp was a pathetic piece of crap that was barely more than a bulb and some cheap wiring. Hitting someone over the head with it would probably hurt her hand more than the person's head.

_Maybe I could use the cord to choke someone?_

Lucy scoffed at herself. She couldn't even crawl through a window or mount a horse without falling, it was highly unlikely she could successfully garrote someone. To say nothing of the fact that the thought of choking the life out of someone horrified her. Using a gun on Jesse James had at least allowed her a slight bit of distance. Choking someone wouldn't allow any distance at all. Besides, she had a concussion. She'd probably vomit on the person before she got the chance to wrap a cord around their neck.

 _Now_ that _sounded like an effective escape plan,_ she mused. No one ever wanted to get someone else's bodily fluids on themselves.

_Well except for those people with fetishes. I hope my captor isn't one of those._

Lucy wrinkled her nose. Okay, so attacking her captor was out of the question. Maybe she needed to think more like Jiya instead. Granted she wasn't the computer genius that Jiya was, not that there was any computer equipment in this room anyway, but hell. She had two PhDs, that had to count for something, right? Speaking of Jiya… she really did have to go to the bathroom.

"Hey!" She shouted, banging on the door as loudly as she could stand, wincing as the noise pierced through her head. "What's a woman gotta do to go to the bathroom around here?"

After a couple of minutes of no response, Lucy began to feel disheartened.

_Oh God. What if they just left me here. In this room, God knows where, locked up, with no food, no water, no place to go to the bathroom?_

Just as she was started to panic, she heard a set of footsteps approaching the door, much to her relief. She heard the lock being disengaged, then the door opened slowly.

And she was slammed with yet another shock. In the doorway, staring at her with an expression of surprise that probably matched her's, was her younger half-brother.

_Well there goes every thought I had of possibly killing my captors. Not only is he still a kid, he's my freaking brother._

She suspected that's why her mother had chosen him to guard her. Granted, she'd only ever spoken seven words to him, if you didn't count her startled "um", but still, her mother had to know that Lucy wouldn't do anything to hurt him, especially after her impassioned plea about Amy.

"Hey, you're that lady that was asking about Dad awhile back," he blurted out.

"Oh! Ahh, yes. Yes I am," Lucy stammered, unsure of what to say. _That lady_? That was worse than _ma'am._ He clearly had no idea who she was or what their relationship was to each other. To be fair, she was only slightly ahead of him, she had no idea what his name was either. His hair and clothing were rumpled and he still had some impressions on his face that indicated he'd obviously been sleeping, which explained the length of time it took him to open the door.

"Why did you stop by to see Dad anyway? Have you seen him? Do you know why I'm supposed to be keeping guard over you?"

For Pete's sake, he was a babe in the woods. He was actually asking his captive why he was holding her captive? And how was she supposed to tell him that she was responsible for getting his, their, dad arrested?

"Um, well, I, ah…. Bathroom?"

_Two PhDs. I wrote two damned dissertations, authored tons of articles, published books, gave lectures, and that was the best response I could come up with?_

"Oh! Right. Sorry. We're kind of… roughing it out here, so we'll have to go outside," he said apologetically. "Do you mind?"

Outside? Where the hell were they anyway? Lucy nodded her assent. He gestured for her to go ahead of him as she took in their surroundings. She was a little taken aback by the ease in which he let her out of the room, considering she was supposed to be a prisoner.

He wasn't kidding when he said they were roughing it. They were in some kind of tiny cabin, she was pretty sure it could fit in the living room of her old apartment. There was a makeshift kitchen that was made up of a mini-fridge, sink, and a hot plate. No bedrooms, besides the tiny room she was locked in, which she suspected was actually a storage closet. The living area held a pair of bunk beds, with the top mattress missing. She supposed that was the mattress she had been sleeping on. A small wood stove was burning fiercely in the corner. There was a backpack tossed on the floor and a jacket hanging over the single chair in the room. There didn't appear to be any phones in the cabin. From the looks of the garment though, it looked like there might be one (maybe two?) cell phones weighing down the pockets.

_Thank God!_

Her brother grabbed his jacket from the chair, shrugged it on, then opened the door.

Lucy stopped short. No wonder the security was so lax. There was a solid foot of snow on the ground and trees as far as she could see. It had to be below freezing. She had had no jacket with her when she woke up and she was wearing a pair of Chucks. There was no way she could escape. She would die of hypothermia before she found help.

"Sorry about the snow," he apologized again, motioning to her Chuck-clad feet. "I'd shovel a pathway, but there's no shovel here."

Yeah, she definitely would never be able to kill this kid. He was too sweet. How the hell had they roped him into this?

He led her to the nearby outhouse and Lucy cringed as the snow and cold seeped into her shoes and pants, freezing her feet immediately. She tried to step into the footprints he left behind, to salvage what she could of her pants and shoes.

"Thanks," she said gratefully when they finally made it. She paused before entering the outhouse, "What's your name anyway?"

"Ethan Cahill. I was named after my grandfather."

Lucy smiled weakly. "Lucy Preston. Nice to meet you, Ethan." She shut the door and leaned against it as she struggled to maintain her composure. From what she could tell so far, Ethan had inherited their grandfather's kind demeanor. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she wept silently for her grandfather.

After a few moments she quickly wiped her tears away and took care of her more pressing needs. She still had to come up with a plan, especially since an escape on her own was out of the question. Her mother had set this trap perfectly. She stepped back out, straightening her clothes, as she approached her brother, who had been waiting just outside the door.

"To answer your earlier question, Ethan, I don't know where your dad is right now," Lucy said truthfully. She didn't know where they were holding Benjamin after all, only that he'd been arrested, and she didn't see the need to disclose that information right now.

Ethan nodded sadly, "Thanks anyway. Why did you ask to see him that one time?"

She hesitated, unsure of how much to tell him, then decided to just go for it, hoping that the explanation might make him more keen on helping her than not.

"Um, well. It's a bit difficult to explain. But I, uh… I recently found out that the man I had thought was my father my entire life actually wasn't…. And, well, it turns out that Benjamin Cahill _was._ I just wanted to meet him in person, you know?"

Ethan's eyes bugged out of his head. "You – I – my – our dad – you're my _sister?_ " He finally sputtered out.

In any other situation, Lucy might have laughed. "That seems to be the case."

"But, then - wha – why am I supposed to lock you up and make sure you don't leave?"

"That, Ethan, is the $64,000 question," she sighed. They had made it back to the cabin. Her feet were soaked and freezing. "Do you mind if I set these by the stove to dry out?" She asked as she removed her shoes.

He seemed surprised by the abrupt change in conversation, but grabbed the Chucks and arranged them by the stove. "Oh! Of course not! But, I'm going to have to ask you to go back in that room again," he said, his voice and his expression full of conflict and remorse. "I'm sorry, but Noah told me I had to keep you in it, if I wanted to get my dad back."

Lucy's heart twisted. "I understand," she said gently, as she went back into the room. "I'm trying to get my sister back and would do anything for her."

He nodded. "I'm going to try to go back to sleep now, but if you need anything, just yell. I have some books with me though, if you need something to do." He handed her a worn, dog-eared Tom Clancy novel.

 _This kid would probably get along great with Wyatt._ She smiled and thanked him as she accepted the book.

Ethan shut the door gently, but with a finality that would have crushed her hopes, had she not stolen a phone from his jacket. Her fascination with Houdini as a child had paid off twice now. She had read and reread _The Right Way to do Wrong_ so many times that the pages had practically disintegrated. She and Amy had also practiced the cutpurse ad nauseum with each other until they had perfected their techniques. It was a running joke they had even as adults, randomly stealing something off of each other and waiting to see how long it took before they noticed it was missing. That history was what had given her the idea to mention it to Houdini in the first place.

 _Please, please,_ please _let there be reception here,_ Lucy begged silently as she pulled out the phone. She started slightly when she looked at it. Initially, when she had felt it in Ethan's pocket, she had simply assumed it was an older model of cell phone that Rittenhouse had given him to avoid being easily tracked, a model that was pretty much extinct now in the era of smart phones. However, turning it over in her hands, she saw that it wasn't an older model at all. Hope bloomed in her chest as she realized it was a satellite phone. She would be able to call someone! Now she simply had to wait until Ethan fell asleep and pray that he didn't notice it was missing. She moved to sit with her ear against the door and strained to hear Ethan's movements.

* * *

Lucy jolted awake a few hours later.

_Shit, shit, shit! I fell asleep!_

She desperately pressed up against the door again, praying that she hadn't missed her chance. She was nearly overwhelmed with relief when she heard light snoring coming from the other room. She quickly dialed Wyatt's number, the only number she could remember by heart. She crossed her fingers as she heard it ring. Once. Twice. Three –

"This is Wyatt Logan. Who is this?"

Lucy's heart squeezed and she nearly whimpered in relief. " _Wyatt?"_ she breathed, careful to keep her voice down.

"Lucy? Lucy is that you? Oh my God, Lucy! Are you okay? Are you safe? Where are you? _Where are you?"_ He sounded absolutely frantic, his voice booming over the line.

" _Shhhh,"_ she hissed. "He's sleeping in the next room, we have to be quiet so we don't wake him."

"Him? Who's him? Is it Noah? I swear, if I get a go at that son of a b-"

"Not Noah," Lucy interrupted, secretly pleased by Wyatt's rage on her behalf. "My brother. Ethan."

"Your – what? Your brother? Since when do you have a brother?"

"I'll explain later," Lucy said briskly.

"Lucy. _Are you okay?_ Where the hell are you?!" The panic was back in his voice.

"I'm fine. I'm pretty sure I have a concussion, and the bastard drugged me, but I'm fine."

"Oh my God. He _hit_ you? He _drugged_ you when you had a _concussion?_ I thought he was a fucking doctor!"

Lucy smiled in spite of herself. Of course Wyatt would have the same train of thought as she did in regard to that.

"He didn't hit me. He grabbed me and I fell and hit my head. I thought the same thing though. But it's okay, I'm awake now. Listen, this is important. You can't trust any of that information we got from Ethan. Rittenhouse was aware of what he was doing the entire time and feeding him the information. Wyatt… my mother is Rittenhouse. Like really high up in Rittenhouse. And so is Noah. He's a direct descendent of David Rittenhouse. _You can't trust anyone."_

There was a few beats of silence, then Wyatt spoke heavily, "That explains the way she was acting when they loaded you in the car. How did you get a phone anyway?"

"I pick-pocketed my brother. He had a satellite phone with him," she answered, a little embarrassed.

"That's my girl." The pride in his voice shone through the connection. "Lucy, you have to tell me. Where did they take you? We have to get you out before something worse happens."

"No! You can't come after me. You have to go after the mothership before they do irreparable damage to our timeline. You don't understand. Every single time we've thought that we were three steps ahead of Rittenhouse, they have been ten steps further. You can't, don't you see? It's a trap," Lucy cried out quietly. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as the hopelessness of this situation settled on her. She had known that she didn't have a chance of disentangling herself from this web and she had resigned herself to that fate, but she had to warn Wyatt.

"Lucy, if that's the case, then we have no idea if the trap is for us to come after you or if they anticipated that you would tell us it was a trap and the trap is going after them. Remember the Alamo?" Wyatt asked gently.

Lucy laughed through her tears. "Remember the Alamo? Seriously?"

"Seriously." Lucy could practically hear his smirk through the phone. "Remember when you came to my defense? You said that I made the right decision? Every time? I need you to trust in that now. You've asked me to trust in you and I have. Now I am asking for the same thing in return."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took some liberty with this chapter as well. I was surprised with where this chapter took me, I didn't anticipate including Lucy's brother at all. If my memory serves me correctly, Lucy never mentioned her brother to Rufus or Wyatt, so I'm going off the assumption that she was too shocked about her father being Rittenhouse to tell them about her brother, hence his confusion about her saying she had a brother.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo! Finally getting prepared for some action. This chapter is from Wyatt's POV and the Time Team is (almost) all back together again. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> The usual disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters! :)

Chapter Five

_Wyatt_

The relief coursing through Wyatt’s veins after his brief conversation with Lucy steeled his nerves and gave him a renewed sense of purpose. Anticipation thrummed through him as he quickly finished packing and called an Uber. After three subsequent changes between Uber drivers and public transportation, he got out and walked the remaining half mile to their predetermined location, carefully shielding his face with his hood and walking with a slight limp. He shook his head, all of this subterfuge was probably a moot point given the reach of Rittenhouse, but he couldn’t shake the paranoia.

_It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you._

He was still two hours ahead of schedule, but he had some planning to do. Pulling out his burner cell, he called Agent Christopher.

“We need to meet early. As in now. I’ll explain when you get here.” He ended the call as he dialed Rufus. He could just imagine the glare Agent Christopher was directing at her phone.

“Hey man, how’s Jiya? Did you get her out okay?”  
  
“Yeah, we’re good, she’s good. What’s up? It’s early.” Rufus voice was guarded.

“I know, I’m sorry. Are you two able to get here now?”

“No problem, is everything okay?”

“Yes and no. I’ll explain more when I see you.” He hung up without further explanation, hoping to avoid the possibilities of Rittenhouse overhearing Rufus’s end of the conversation. Hell, they might be able to hear his, it’d been a couple of hours since Agent Christopher swept this place. He paced the warehouse, organizing his thoughts and forming a plan as he waited.

Rufus and Jiya were the first to arrive. Wyatt stepped in and gave Jiya a quick hug.

“How are you feeling? Any more seizures?” He asked, concerned.

She gave him a wan smile. “Like I’ve been split into a million atoms and wasn’t put back together quite right. There haven’t been any since that weird one in the hospital. I’ll be happy if it never happens again.”

“Are you sure you’re okay to be out?” Wyatt was worried, he didn’t want to compromise Jiya’s health over this ordeal, but he also didn’t think she would be safe in the hospital. He felt confident Rittenhouse would be looking to eliminate both her and Rufus to prevent them from giving chase and he knew Rufus felt the same.

“Yeah, I’m good. We all know there’s nothing the hospital can do for whatever’s wrong with me anyway.” She gave him her best game face. “Besides, you guys need a tech on the other end of all this in case we have to figure out how to Millenium Falcon you back a second time.

Rufus shuddered. “Please don’t say that. Don’t even think that. I never want to go through that again. Especially since we don’t have Mason Industries’ resources behind us now.”

“What’s with the duffels?” Wyatt nodded to two massive lumpy bags that had been sitting in the corner when he arrived that Rufus had just dragged over.

Jiya and Rufus glanced at each other, then at Wyatt with identical grins.

“I raided a few computer recycling warehouses for parts, so we could cobble together a new systems operation wherever Agent Christopher puts us,” Rufus admitted. “It’ll take some time to get everything up and running, but I think between two geniuses like ourselves, we should be able to build a system that you wouldn’t take home to your mom, but will get the job done. I dropped everything off here before I went to go get Jiya. It was her idea.” He gave Jiya’s shoulders a quick squeeze that smacked of warmth and pride.

Wyatt could feel a grin of his own spreading across his face. These two, man. Rufus had been shot a couple of days ago and who the hell knew what was going on with Jiya and still, they never let anyone down, kept their game faces on, their sense of humor, and hell, they even managed to fall in love. He honestly didn’t think he ever had a better team in his life. Not even in Delta Force. It struck a chord of fear deep within him, that he would fail them like he failed in Syria, but he shoved it aside as Agent Christopher strode in.

“What the hell is going on,” she demanded in her characteristic, no-nonsense tone.

“Lucy called me.” He attempted to elaborate further, but was stymied as everyone inhaled a breath of air, then peppered him with a hailstorm of questions.

“Lucy?!” Jiya’s astonished gasp.

“How?! But – “ Rufus struggling to comprehend.

“Is she okay?!” Jiya’s concern for her friend.

“Where is she, is she hurt?!” Rufus’s simultaneous outburst of concern

“What’s the situation?” The ever-practical Agent Christopher.

Wyatt held up his hand to quiet them. “She’s okay. She has a concussion and she was drugged, but she’s fine now.” He explained what Lucy had told him about what had happened at the house, the situation with her mother and Noah. He bristled internally as he told them about Rittenhouse’s plans to use Lucy as a broodmare to further the line of Rittenhouse royalty. Rufus and Jiya made sounds of indignation and horror at appropriate times. Agent Christopher just simply listened silently, absorbing and sifting through the information, cataloging it in her brain. He explained that she was currently being held prisoner in a cabin by her brother.

“What do you know about Lucy having a brother,” he asked Agent Christopher. Rufus turned his eyes toward her as well, having never heard of a brother either.

“She must mean Benjamin Cahill’s son, Ethan, her half-brother” she responded. “He just turned 17, plays varsity football on his high school team, honor roll student, currently enrolled in some college classes on the weekend. Plans to go to med school to become a pediatric surgeon like his father. Mason’s program didn’t pick up anything on him so we didn’t pick him up.

Everyone just stared agog at her. “What?” She shrugged. “I figured Lucy must have mentioned him to you, apparently not.”

Wyatt gave her an exasperated glance, then continued. “Like Lucy said, all the information we got from Ethan is compromised. But if we’re walking into a trap anyway, the property will probably be somewhere in the information we got from him, they wouldn’t want to hide the location too deeply from us. Rufus – Lucy said that there was about a foot of new snow on the ground, we can narrow the search down based on weather reports of areas that had recent snowfall.

Rufus nodded. “Roger that. I’ll get right on it.”

“I can help with that. I’ll focus on the forests in northern California while Rufus can focus on Oregon,” Jiya added.

Wyatt acknowledged their help, then turned to Agent Christopher. “You and I need to get Flynn out. Lucy ‘s note was right. We need him.”

Everyone started sputtering at once again.

“No arguing about this. We are either walking into a trap by rescuing Lucy, or we are walking into a trap by going after them through time. Either way, we can’t have all of our resources focused on one mission, otherwise we risk losing everything. We need Flynn. I’m going after Lucy, Agent Christopher, I hope you’ll help with that. Rufus, you don’t have a choice, you and Jiya are our only pilots, and Jiya’s out for the count until we know more on what’s going on. But I can’t risk sending you back in time alone. Flynn not only has the expertise needed to keep you protected as a former NSA operative, but he’s also been studying both history and Rittenhouse for the past year and a half in preparation for this wild ride we’ve been on. He’s our best substitute as a historian until we get Lucy back. I know – he got you shot, but think of it this way, this time you both have a mutual target on Rittenhouse and you’ll be his only way back, so he probably won’t want to shoot you again,” he added before Rufus could interrupt. His friend shut his mouth and just glared at him silently in return.

“He’s right,” Jiya said softly, placing a hand on Rufus’s arm. “I’m not comfortable with you going back alone. I need to know you’re protected. It disgusts me to have to say this, but you know it just as well as I do. The simple fact that you’re black puts you at a way higher risk of getting hurt in the past than anyone else here, except for possibly me. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again.”

Rufus’s glare eased as he gazed down at her and nodded.

Agent Christopher sighed. “Of course I’ll help you get Lucy, Wyatt. Let’s get to work. Flynn’s located at a blacksite about an hour north of here. Rufus and Jiya, you guys head to the safe house to set up and beginning tracking down Lucy’s location. Here’s the address and coordinates.” She rattled it off from memory.  
  
Wyatt raised an eyebrow. “Mexico?”

Damned if she didn’t raise an eyebrow right back at him. “Rittenhouse has every one of their fingers in the pie that is America, do they not? The further I could get from their reach, the more comfortable I was. If it was practical to set up a base in Antarctica, I’d do that instead. Mexico was the next best option. There are fewer chances of getting caught on a traffic cam or any other surveillance footage and I was still able to find a site with an adequate power source for the lifeboat. It’s an older farm on the northwest border that sourced land out for wind power. Rufus and Jiya, you’ll have to jump the lifeboat to the location. I couldn’t get away with driving it across the border,” she finished sarcastically, as she provided them with the address to the lifeboat’s location.

“When you get to the safehouse, I’ve secured some vehicles for us. They’ll be at the location. They’re older models, so Rittenhouse won’t be able to use any of their technology to power down a car while you’re driving if they happen upon us in Mexico. Just like the ones here,” she motioned to the two 1980’s Ford models in the warehouse. “Sorry Rufus, no Bluetooth capability.”

He grinned, “Hey, it’s fine by me, if it means they can’t shut off my car while I’m going 55 miles per hour.”

She reached into her bag and pulled out a folder. “Here are documents with new identities for all of us. Secured through illegal channels, as opposed to Homeland Security to minimize the risk of moles.”

Wyatt couldn’t help feeling impressed as he reached for his documents. Agent Christopher did have latent super powers after all. “You got all of this done in just 12 hours?”

“Not quite,” she admitted. “I was anticipating something like this could happen and was quietly getting my resources together. I like being prepared.”  
  
“Well, Agent Christopher, you would have made an excellent Boy Scout. How ‘bout it team? Let’s get this show on the road.”

 


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AN: I'm sorry for the delay! Unfortunately, I've had to engage in scientific writing in the life of a typical grad student, instead of the much more fun angst that is this story! I have a bit of a surprise for you in this next chapter that I hope you will enjoy! Thank you again for all of the reviews, Remember the Alamo and WWWD were two moments that were particularly enjoyable for me to write, so I was excited to see that you all enjoyed those moments too!

Chapter Six

_Flynn_

_All clear. No monsters. It's safe to go to sleep._

_But I'm not tired._

_What else is new?_

_But what if the monsters come while I'm sleeping?_

_Well then, I'll protect you. I'll always protect you._

_No monsters. It's safe._

_What if they come while I'm sleeping._

_I'll protect you._

_It's safe._

_But what if?_

_I'll always protect you._

_I'll always protect you._

_I'll always protect you._

He thought he had had a chance at absolution. Now he was in hell.

_I'll always protect you._

He had trusted Lucy. He had had a chance to bring his girls back. His precious Iris.

_No monsters. It's safe._

Flynn squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't get rid of the memories. The voices.

* _flash*_

_The covers rustled, waking him up. He rolled over in bed, sleepily, reaching for Lorena as she threw off the covers and slid her feet into a pair of slippers._

_What is it, honey?_

_Shhh, go back to bed. I just thought I heard Iris coughing and wanted to check on her._

_He nodded and rolled back over. Iris had been a little crankier than usual that night, more afraid of the monsters in her closet than normal. He typically didn't have to break out the water gun to get her to feel safe enough to fall asleep. The start of a cold might be why she had been a little more fretful than normal. He was just drifting back to sleep when he heard it._

_*cough* *cough*_

_His heart stopped. For a fraction of a second the world stood still and he was paralyzed, unable to move. He knew that sound. Lorena may have thought it was a cough, but silencers weren't silent. They were never silent. Two coughs. A bullet to the chest and a bullet to the head. His mind screamed at him to move, but his body wasn't responding._

_MOVE._

_It felt like eons, an eternity, had passed him by. Realistically he knew that it had been only seconds. But those precious seconds had been seconds too late. He had known it as soon as he had heard those coughs. But the mind was a funny thing and it refused to give up hope._

_He was up. Bolting for Iris's bedroom. Praying, pleading, begging to God that He had spared him at least one of his girls. That he could save at least one of them._

_He reached her room and his world shattered. He collapsed to his knees, unaware of the silent sobs being wrenched from his chest, as he gathered his girls to the gaping chasm where his heart had once been. He had failed. There were monsters. It wasn't all clear. He couldn't protect them. He could never protect them._

_*flash*_

The scene endlessly played on a loop in his head. Over and over again, without relief. He had only given himself a few precious moments to grieve his loss before his mind had turned to avenging his girls. That mission had been all that had kept him going. He knew he could never go back to Lorena and Iris, but if he could just bring them back, everything he had gone through would have been worth it. He had known that if he had allowed himself to feel the grief, that he never would have survived it.

Until the moment he had felt those handcuffs around his wrists. He had been renowned in the NSA for his creativity and his ability to get out of sticky situations in the field, but he had been unable to see a way out of this one. He lost his sense of direction, his sense of momentum, and gave himself permission to freefall into despair he had been staving off. He saw no reason to fight anymore.

_All clear. No monsters. It's safe._

The cycle began again.

* * *

 

Flynn wasn't sure how long he had been caught up in the memories of his past when he heard the thuds. He ignored them, not caring if the entire state of California was under siege at this moment, but in the back of his head, his brain still calculated every noise.

_A body falling down the stairs._

_A crack to the back of a skull. Followed quickly by a solid object meeting the side of someone's head._

_Two more bodies sliding to the floor._

_Quiet rustling at his door._

He blinked dully as light flooded the room for the first time since he'd been shoved into it and chained to the table. He had expected questioning, but there had been no contact since he entered the room. It had only allowed him to regress deeper into his memories. Now his eyes fought to adjust to the light as he saw two shapes looming over him.

"Jesus, what happened to him?" He recognized that voice. It was that fucking, do-no-wrong, golden boy of Lucy's. Wyatt Logan.

He glared up at them, his vision clearing enough to recognize the bitch standing next to him. Agent Christopher. The woman responsible for his arrest.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Flynn growled, his voice hoarse from disuse.

"We need you," Logan said simply.

He laughed in disbelief, sounding more like a croak.

"And what the hell makes you think I would do anything to help you? I'd rather stay in here and rot."

"It's Rittenhouse-"

Flynn exploded. "I don't give a shit about Rittenhouse. They took my family. They took my life. They took everything away from me. I've tried. I've tried for the past year and a half. And this is where it got me. Right where they wanted me all along. I'd rather rot in here than help you or that bitch, Lucy, or play into their twisted little games anymore."

"Lucy was telling you the truth. She had no idea I had set this up, that I had been following her to get to you," Agent Christopher interjected softly, but matter-of-factly. "If you have a beef, which I imagine you should, direct it at me. Not Lucy or Wyatt. They've just been following my orders the entire time."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Following your orders the entire time? I spoke to Lucy on multiple occasions. She had more than one opportunity to take me out, not that she would have been able to, but she didn't know that. And I'm sure they were following your orders when Lucy manipulated me into playing along on this last trip."

Agent Christopher grimaced. "Even so. Direct the blame at me. Wyatt was stating the truth. We need you. Rittenhouse has the mother-"

" _Rittenhouse has fucking Lucy!"_ Wyatt lost his tightly held control. "I don't give a fuck about the mothership! Lucy's mother is Rittenhouse, that bastard of a fiancé of hers is Rittenhouse. They drugged her and kidnapped her. They're planning to use her as a prized breeding cow, they have her stashed in some safe house, God-knows-where. We have to get her back. Do I trust you? Hell no. But do I need you? Yes. I will do anything to get Lucy back and protect her with everything I have. She's the one who told us to get you. And I'm trusting her on this. I'm going against my better judgment, but I'm going to put my faith in you. And yes, Rittenhouse has the goddamn mothership."

 _Well. Wasn't this interesting?_ He had expected this development after reading Lucy's journal, but he hadn't had the sense that Wyatt had realized the depth of his feelings for Lucy yet.

"1933. San Francisco. Rittenhouse jumped to the construction site of the Golden Gate bridge," Flynn stated, ignoring everything else that was said.

Wyatt and Christopher both froze.

"How on earth could you know that?" Agent Christopher asked. "We didn't even know where they jumped yet."

"Because it was in Lucy's journal," he answered simply. "I could be wrong. I thought we had changed history far enough off course to deviate from the timeline in Lucy's journal, but apparently Fate is a fickle bitch who picks and chooses whose lives she's going to ruin on a whim, so I'm going to assume that's where they went."

"What else do you know?" Wyatt demanded.

Flynn shrugged. "Not much else. Lucy's entries became far less detailed after Capone. I don't know what happened to change that, her journal didn't mention anything about being kidnapped and maybe it didn't happen in that timeline, but Rittenhouse getting a hold of the mothership did. I had changed the location where we landed the mothership to try to circumvent that, but apparently that didn't help. Her journal certainly didn't say anything about double crossing me and getting me _arrested_ either, or else I'd never have put myself at that level of risk."

"We need you to go back with Rufus, to stop whatever it is that they're planning," Agent Christopher said, not bothering to ask if he was willing to help or not. "Wyatt is going to focus on extracting Lucy, but we can't send Rufus in alone. The fact that you even know where they jumped gives us a huge break we didn't have before."

"And what makes you think I would ever want to help you?" Flynn lifted his hands, still handcuffed to the table. "After all, helping you lot is how I ended up in this situation.

"Let's be real here. You, stealing a time machine, engaging in acts of terrorism across time, _that's_ what landed you in this cell. Not helping Lucy or Wyatt. But if you help us with this, I will give you free rein to go after your family's killers. I'm on the run now as well, so I can't offer the backing of Homeland Security, but we do have the lifeboat now, so you still have a chance."

Flynn's breath caught in his chest. He might still be able to chase that absolution after all. Could he risk it? Could he risk _not_ risking it? When it came down to it, he didn't have a choice. He lifted his wrists to be uncuffed.

_No monsters. I'll always protect you._

_I'm still going to try, baby girl. I'm still going to try._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! This chapter was from Flynn's POV. I apologize for all the Lyatt shippers who are still waiting for that reunion, but Flynn's POV was just begging to be told and I couldn't say no to him!


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woot! Things are starting to heat up. Although this is a shorter chapter, it's setting things up for all the action that is about to happen. I'm so glad you guys enjoyed the Flynn POV too! While this will be mostly a Wyatt/Lucy fic, you should be able to expect the occasional chapter with another POV peppered throughout this story.

 

Chapter Seven

_Wyatt_

Wyatt swore he didn't take another breath until they crossed the border into Mexico. They had switched vehicles three times and everyone had been diligently looking for a tail, but he still felt like he had a target painted on the roof of their car that screamed, "RITTENHOUSE FUGITIVE." Between the irascible NSA operative hunched over in the backseat, the intense Homeland Security agent who had arrested said NSA operative sitting next to him, and the PTSD-ridden Delta Force soldier that was himself, you could cut through the tension with a butter knife.

_Hell, you could probably cut through it with a plastic butter knife._

The reminder of being Delta Force startled him for a moment. He supposed he was technically AWOL now. Probably considered an enemy of the state. He would never, in a million years, believed that he would have flipped sides. He had dreamed of going into the military since he was a kid, thanks to his grandfather's influence. He had never wanted to be in a situation in which he was defenseless again and he instinctually knew his service in the military was a way to make up for his failure to protect his mother and sister. But he hadn't really flipped sides. It was more like the dark underbelly of the American government had flipped sides on him.

Wyatt sighed to himself. Speculating on his motives and the circumstances wasn't going to do anything except give him a migraine. He had only caught 30 to 60 minutes of cat naps here and there since Lucy was kidnapped and even then, he had been plagued with nightmares from his past. They were beginning to climb into the Sierra de Juarez mountain range and he needed to pay attention to the road. He had been driving for close to 12 hours in total silence as everyone was lost in their own thoughts and he was becoming seriously envious that Rufus and Jiya jumped to the safehouse, time travel sickness be damned. And he would have to drive north again as soon as they figured out where Lucy was being held.

A little over two hours later, they finally arrived at the small, ramshackle farm and unfolded themselves from the vehicle. Rufus and Jiya came out to meet them with concerned expressions on their faces, giving Flynn a wide berth.

"Guys, Rittenhouse jumped to – " Rufus began, without preamble.

"1933. San Francisco. Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge." Flynn interrupted.

_So the ass can talk after all._

Wyatt could only assume that Rufus was taking in a deep breath to demand how Flynn could possibly know that information when Jiya let out a small gasp and they all turned to her.

"The last seizure I had in the hospital… I – I don't know what happened, but while it was going on, all I could see out the window wasn't the bridge as it looked _today_ , but the bridge when it was _under construction._ "

Flynn looked mildly interested at the news. Rufus looked horrified. "What are you talking about, what do you mean? You saw the _past_ _without jumping?_ "

I don't know. I didn't want to worry anyone, especially when we have no idea what's going on and we have no way of treating it." She shrugged helplessly.

Wyatt frowned. "But, why the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge? Was it because your room had a view of the bridge? Or is it connected to the machines somehow?"

"I have no idea and it's kind of freaking me out, so let's change the subject, okay? Please?"

Rufus opened his mouth to argue, but she shot him a desperate look, silently begging for a change in topic. He closed his mouth in a grim line and gave an imperceptible nod. Jiya's shoulders sagged with relief.

"Rufus and I were able to hack into one of the aerostats on the US/Mexico border for a wireless connection while we were waiting for you guys and we think we may have figured out where Rittenhouse is keeping Lucy. They have a few properties owned by shell corporations in Oregon and California, but the only location that has had recent snowfall is near Government Camp, Oregon."

Jiya couldn't have chosen a topic that could have been more successful in completely diverting his thoughts from her time traveling maladies. His mind instantly focused on what they needed to do next.

"Flynn, did Lucy's journal mention why Rittenhouse chose the construction of the bridge?" Agent Christopher asked.

Flynn shook his head, "No. Like I said, her journal became much less detailed after the Capone trip."

"Oh. You mean the trip where you had me shot. By the way, that's not healed yet and still hurts like a son of a bitch." If looks could kill, Rufus's glare would have vaporized Flynn in an instant.

The NSA operative looked unimpressed. "It's a bullet wound. You'll get over it. You're still alive, aren't you." Flynn briefly pulled up a portion of his shirt to display a kaleidoscope of bullet wounds, knife scars, and what appeared to be a webbed scar from being hit by shrapnel with an eyebrow raised, challenging the coder to continue this conversation. A man of many words, that one. He couldn't have conveyed his disdain any more simply.

Wyatt sighed. Sending Rufus and Flynn back together could only mean bad news, but he didn't see that he had any other choice. He didn't trust anyone except himself to extract Lucy safely.

"You two. Figure out a way to kiss and make up. We don't have the luxury of sniping at each other right now. You'll need to go back to 1933 and we don't have the extensive wardrobe we had at Mason Industries. You're going to have to be creative and steal some clothes, while managing to not get caught."

Both of their glares were now aimed at him. At least they were willingly collaborating on _something_. Maybe there was a sliver of hope for them after all. He rallied on, ignoring their joint irritation at being ordered to work together.

"We apparently have no idea why Rittenhouse chose this particular event either, that was Lucy's wheelhouse, so it's going to be that much harder for you guys to figure out what they're doing. Flynn, you know Rittenhouse and their motives better than any of us, I'm leaving that up to you."

"It's Rittenhouse. It's either going to have something to do with the economy, or politics, or both."

Wyatt inclined his head in agreement. He hadn't felt Lucy's loss as acutely as he did in that moment, trying to command everyone and develop a plan without her interjecting her bossy know-it-all attitude and throwing his plan out the window. He felt lost. Adrift at sea without a paddle. How had he become so dependent on her in such a short amount of time?

He reined himself in and turned to Agent Christopher and Jiya. "Agent Christopher, I was hoping you'd go with me, but with this thing going on with Jiya, I think you should stay back in case anything goes wrong."

She nodded, while Jiya just looked pissed and frightened at her situation, but she nodded as well.

"Jiya, what do you know about the schematics of their Government Camp property? I'm going to need all the information I can get in order to get around without detection."

"Come on in," Jiya waved over her shoulder, as she turned to the farmhouse. "Pick a room for yourself while I gather up all of the materials. I'll get you the topographical map. There are blueprints, but the building really isn't much more than one room and a small closet."

Wyatt stiffened. Lucy had said she was in a locked room. If there were no other rooms in the cabin, that meant they were keeping her in the closet. He had been skiing up at Mt. Hood before with Jessica, he knew how long of a drive it was, even longer now that they were holed up in Mexico. It'd be at least another day before he'd be able to get to Lucy. Another day that she would spend confined in a closet with claustrophobia. That is, if they didn't move her before then. Or do something worse. It had already been nearly 24 hours since he spoke to her on the phone and his sense of urgency was growing.

"Forget picking a room. Get me those materials. I need to go now."

"No. Wyatt, you haven't slept in days. Pick a room. Get an hour or two of sleep. Government Camp is at least 20 hours away and you're no good to Lucy if you crash along the way. You can't keep going at this pace and you know it as well as I do," Agent Christopher interjected.

"With all due respect, Agent Christopher, I won't be able to sleep until I know that Lucy is safe again. I've done several missions before on less sleep. I know what I'm capable of. The sooner we get her back, the sooner I'll be able to rest."

She sighed. "Fine. At least wait long enough for us to make you a pot of coffee to take with you and drink a cup or two of it while you go over the maps."

He nodded and the entire group made their way into the farmhouse. Rufus and Flynn to compile a cursory file on the Golden Gate Bridge before they left and the rest of them to identify an extraction plan for Lucy. The ragtag Time Team with their addition of one cranky time terrorist and the ominous absence of a critical team member. They would need all the luck in the world to pull this off.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Lucy chapters so far are ending up longer than all the other chapters. Loooooooots of things are happening in this chapter, I hope you enjoy! Expect quite a bit of action to follow this chapter too. :) I'm pretty excited that I got to update so many times this week - I doubt I'll be able to keep up this pace, but I'll keep up with once a week at least!

Chapter Eight

_Lucy_

Lucy groaned as she woke up and stretched. The effects of the concussion were starting to wear off and she could actually move around now without feeling as if the bottom was going to drop out of her stomach, thankfully. She glanced up at the clock to gauge the time. Her sense of time was being completely thrown off, thanks to the fact that there were no windows in her locked room. 2:48 in the afternoon. She sighed. She had been stuck in this room for nearly a day and a half now and was going insane from boredom.

After calling Wyatt, her brother had let her out a few hours later to use the restroom again and for an invigorating meal of instant oatmeal. She had casually slipped the satellite phone back into his jacket as she brushed up against the chair where it had been resting. She fervently prayed that he hadn't noticed it missing for those few hours and she didn't think he had. He was one of the few kids she'd met who didn't constantly have his attention focused on his cell phone. As far as she could tell, he hadn't even checked it once since they'd been there. His nose had always been stuck in a book instead.

_Guess that solves that nature vs. nurture argument._

Lucy had been the same as a child. Granted, there hadn't been smart phones around when she was growing up, but she had always been reading one book or another, while Amy begged her to play with her outside. She supposed she was still the same way, when she wasn't off trying to save history or getting kidnapped and drugged by her own mother and her fake fiancé.

_What the ever-loving hell has happened to my life?_

The song by the BeeGees, I Started a Joke, kept annoyingly replaying itself in her head. It had been her parents' favorite song. She had so many memories of her mother or her (Amy's) father singing and humming it to themselves while they cooked, drove, did chores, etc. It was such a depressing song and she never understood why her parents had loved it so much. However, it seemed all too appropriate for her situation now.

_If I'd only seen that the joke was on me._

She absently hummed the song to herself and wondered if she really would have to die to start the world living again. If her death would be the only thing that could truly stop the propagation of the Rittenhouse line.

_Snap out of it, Lucy. You're waxing philosophical about your death to a damned BeeGees song. You don't have time for this._

Except, ironically, she had nothing but time on her hands at the moment, at least while she was stuck in this room. Lucy shifted to position herself closer to the door and strained to hear what Ethan might be doing. She heard nothing and sighed, resettling herself on the mattress with her back against the wall. She figured he must be reading again. She'd tried reading the Tom Clancy novel he had lent her, but the concussion had made it too difficult to focus on the words, so she had been simply left to her own mental devices.

She was in the middle of reciting the vice presidents of the United States to herself when she was startled by the sound of voices. She quickly scrambled back to the door to make out what was being said.

A deep voice was speaking quietly, but still resonated off the walls of the structure. She immediately stiffened.

_Noah. That son of a bitch! He was here!_

"Ethan. How have things been going up here?"

"Fine. Why didn't you tell me she was my sister? Why the hell do you have her locked up? She seems nice enough. I don't understand what's going on" The bewilderment in Ethan's voice was clear. His innocence made Lucy's heart ache.

"All in good time, Ethan. You'll understand soon. Right now, all you need to know is that she's having my child and I have to keep them safe from the people who are trying to take her away from me." He was clearly attempting to sound earnest, but was failing miserably.

She sucked in a breath. _What?!_ He had to be lying for effect. She had never been able to stand his touch. The closest he had ever come to being intimate with her was when he had walked out into the living room in his boxers and tried to neck her. Last she checked that didn't result in immaculate conception and she was nowhere near as virtuous as the Virgin Mary. Unless…. No. She firmly rejected the idea that anything had happened while she had been unconscious. For one, she felt confident she would intrinsically _know_ if something had happened, and two, that had been 36 hours ago. There was no way to tell if she was pregnant yet and it wasn't even the right time of her cycle.

She sighed with relief. He was definitely manipulating Ethan into thinking she was _pregnant_ now, as opposed to in the never-gonna-happen future.

"With all due respect, sir…. It seems like if she's your fiancé and she was having your baby, she'd _want_ to be with you and you wouldn't have to lock her up. Frankly, this seems like a completely fucked up situation and I don't know if I want to be part of it."

Lucy's teeth clenched when she heard the sound of Ethan being backhanded.

"Do you, or do you not want to know where your father is?" Noah hissed.

"Sir, yes sir. I'm sorry sir." All of her protective hackles rose at the sound of her kid brother being intimidated and cowed in a situation where he was just trying to do the right thing.

"Then you'll do as you're told. Now give me the key."

Lucy started to scramble back to the furthest corner of the closet, but she stopped herself. It was time to stop shrinking from these dicks and stand up for herself and fight. She unconsciously flexed her hand into a fist at her side as the door was thrown open. The smile he sent in her direction sent chills running down her spine.

"Why hello, Lucy. Honey. How have we been?"

"You bastard! How dare you drug me, kidnap me, lock me up, and hit my brother! Who the hell do you think you are?!" She snarled and lunged for him, startling him. He clearly hadn't been expecting this reaction after she had run from him last time. He jerked his head back enough fast enough to miss the fist that was aimed for his cheek. But he wasn't quick enough to block the knee she aimed at his crotch and dropped to his knees with gasping in pain. She drew her foot back to kick him as hard as she could, but his hand shot up, grabbing her leg, and dropping her on her ass.

She glared at him from her prone position on the mattress, acutely aware of the vulnerability of her position.

"Oh Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. You shouldn't have done that." Noah shook his head slowly, then grabbed her by the front of the shirt, dragging her up to his face, and slapped her harshly across the cheek. "I've allowed you to get away with _so_ much. Flaunting your soldier in front of me, acting like a prima donna, needing all that 'space' for yourself, so you could spend more time with Wyatt. That all ends now. You're just lucky that I need you to be in decent physical condition right now. Nothing worse than trying to have sex with an invalid in bed."

"I'd rather die first." Lucy spat back.

"If you weren't Carol Preston's daughter…." He loomed over her with a clenched fist, then abruptly dropped her back on the mattress. "I just thought you should know that your new accommodations are nearly ready, I think we'll be very happy there." He flashed his teeth at her in his macabre version of a smile. "Your mother sends her regards, but she had to prepare for the next trip in the mothership. As you can probably imagine, she is eagerly awaiting it. Now, I'll be on my way. I expect that you'll be a little more cooperative next time I see you. Or perhaps, we won't take it as easy on your little group of friends."

He took the engagement ring she had left at his apartment out of his pocket and roughly shoved it onto her finger. "I also expect to see you wearing this the next time I see you."

Noah sauntered back out of the closet, slamming and locking the door behind him as he whistled Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Lucy ripped off the ring and flung it against the wall as she curled into the fetal position on her side. God, she hated that song. It had plagued her for her entire childhood. She was still stunned by her encounter with Noah. While she hadn't exactly _liked_ the man before, she had never even caught the remotest glimpse of the depths of his depravity. She shuddered, suddenly terrified for her friends.

She vaguely heard him say something to Ethan, then the sound of an engine starting, as her thoughts raced through her mind. A few minutes later, the lock to the door of her closet jiggled, then swung open and Ethan's pale and bruised face looked down at her.

"Lucy?" He whispered, creeping into the room and kneeling down next to her, dropping a couple of straightened paperclips by her side. "Noah took the key. He didn't know that I know how to pick locks. Are you okay?"

She turned toward him and he flinched when he saw her cut lip and what was sure to be a bruise forming on her cheekbone.

"Hang on for just a moment." He swiftly rose and darted into the other room, returning shortly afterward with a warm washcloth and gently washed the blood off her face. Lucy felt tears welling up in her eyes at his kindness. How had he gotten mixed up in all of this?

"Lucy, I don't know what's going on. I don't know if I _want_ to know what's going on. But whatever it is, I know it's _wrong._ I still need to know what happened to Dad, but we have to get you out of here. We have to come up with a plan. I don't know where we are, they blindfolded me when they brought me here and we don't have a vehicle, but we have to do _something_. What do you know?"

Lucy offered a tremulous smile and grabbed his hand, stopping his ministrations.

"What do you know about Rittenhouse?"

Ethan looked startled. "Rittenhouse? Not much. I've heard our dad mention it a couple of times. He had always talked about it being a charitable organization that he was high up in and would always tell me that one day, I would take his place, but he would only ever say that the time wasn't right to talk about it. From what I understood, they funded his tuition to medical school in order to recruit his services as a pediatric surgeon once he was done and would do the same for me. I never understood why the time had to right to talk about a charity."

She nodded. "That's because it isn't one." She took a deep breath, then she started with the Hindenburg.

* * *

Ethan slowly sat back, looking stunned. "I…. I'm sorry. It's just a little hard to take it all in, you know?"

"Oh I know," Lucy said wryly. "I had the same reaction. I still do, and I've been doing this for 6 months now."

"Dad. He really set all of this up? Manipulated you into this situation?"

"I'm sorry to say, but yes. When I said that I didn't know where he was earlier, that was only partially true. He was one of the members that was arrested after our last mission. I just don't know where they're holding him. From the sounds of it though, Rittenhouse wanted him imprisoned."

Impossibly, he paled even further. "I love my dad. I really do. And I don't want him to be hurt, but I hate to say that I can see him coordinating all of this. That's what he did best. Maneuvering all his chess pieces into the exact outcome _he_ wanted. I'm going to school for pre-med because that's what _he_ wanted. I play football, because that's what _he_ expected. I'd much rather spend time with my computers, go into the military, and get a degree in engineering, but Dad always told me that was beneath us."

Lucy smiled. "I think you're going to get along great with my friends, if we ever get out of this situation. Rufus is our pilot and engineer, one of the developers of the lifeboat and mothership. He and his girlfriend, Jiya, are brilliant with computers. Wyatt is a soldier, Delta Force, the Army's anti-terrorist unit."

Ethan's face brightened a bit at the thought of meeting the time team, but quickly fell again. "Lucy, how are we going to get out of this situation?"

"I don't know." She sighed. "I keep thinking about what Wyatt would do and the only thing I know we can do right off the bat is go over what supplies we _do_ have, so we can be prepared when the opportunity presents itself."

"That's not going to be much. I mean, neither of us even knew what weather we were going to be in." He motioned to her shoes. "You're wearing Chucks and only have a medium weight jacket. I have my hiking boots that are water-proof, but my jacket isn't anything to sneeze at either. We don't have much for food, we do have matches for fires I guess, but that's not going to keep us from getting hypothermia or anything."

"Well let's get started then." She glanced outside. "It's starting to get dark outside, so let's see what we can find out about our location while we still have some light."

He motioned for her to stay inside as he stood up and grabbed his jacket. "You go over our supplies in here. I'll go look around outside. I have boots, we should try to keep your shoes dry for as long as possible."

"Good idea." Ethan nodded at her and slipped outside. She started going through their meager supplies, mentally categorizing what could be taken as supplies or weapons. She was eyeing the blankets, trying to figure out how she could fashion them in a way that would keep them warmer, when she heard a thump outside and Ethan's startled cry.

"Lucy!"

She bolted for the door and threw it open. Her heart stopped.

Wyatt. All she could see was his face. She drank in his appearance. His mussed hair. Piercing blue eyes narrowly focused on -

She caught herself. Wyatt was here, but he had her brother in a stranglehold!

"WYATT LOGAN, YOU GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY BROTHER THIS INSTANT. IF YOU HURT A HAIR ON HIS HEAD-"

His head whipped around and caught her gaze, although he didn't lessen his hold.

"Lucy!"

"Wyatt. Let him go. Trust me on this. He's innocent."

He eyed Ethan suspiciously and reluctantly let go of her brother as Ethan gasped for breath and dropped to his hands and knees. Wyatt turned to face her fully, his gaze anxiously scanning her up and down, looking for injuries, zeroing in on her cut lip and bruised face.

Lucy flew down the steps and threw herself in his arms, burying her head into his neck, holding onto him for dear life. She felt as if she had finally found her anchor in the storm. She let the tears she had been holding back during this entire ordeal flow freely as she breathed in his comforting scent, snuggling herself deeper into his arms, wanting to never let him go. His arms came around her, tightening, as he cradled her head in his hand, rested his cheek against her hair, and gently rocked her back and forth with his body.

"Lucy." He breathed, his warm breath tickling her neck. "Oh, thank God, Lucy. You're okay. You're alive. I have you now. We'll get through this together. We'll be okay. Lucy, I lo- I'm never letting you go again. Oh God, _Lucy._ "

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've never heard the song, I Started a Joke, you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4chmOU5J9Gg


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You guys... I can't even express how happy I felt writing the reunion scene! But it's finally here, folks. I hope you enjoy!

 

Chapter Nine

_Wyatt_

The moment Wyatt heard Lucy's voice, the world stopped and tilted on its axis. His head whipped around and as he drank in his first glimpse of her since that day at Mason Industries, everything else faded away. He barely registered that she was shouting at him. He didn't even care. She was _alive._ She could be ramming her knee into his gut for all he cared, all that mattered was that she was alive.

Then it registered that she was yelling at him to let the kid in his chokehold go. He eyed the kid. This must be the brother Lucy talked about, which didn't exactly inspire trust in Wyatt's eyes, considering he had been locking her in a closet. But he let him go anyway, and turned so he could face Lucy fully. His spine stiffened as his gaze narrowed on her split lip and bruised cheek and he was about to turn to beat the shit out of the kid for laying a hand on Lucy when she flung herself into his arms.

He closed his eyes and let out half a breath as he felt her nestle in closer and bury her face into his neck. His arms slowly closed around her and tightened as he could feel the tension of the past few days leave his body. He cradled her head closer to him and couldn't stop himself from resting his cheek against her tangled hair as he felt her tremble with silent sobs. He was never letting her go again.

He dimly recognized that he was uttering words to her. Words that had no meaning and yet every meaning in the world to him.

"I lo- " Wyatt caught himself just as he realized he was about to tell her he loved her. The idea of it terrified him. His love had only brought pain and grief to those around him. It was safer if she didn't know, if he kept her at a distance. But he told himself he could allow himself to indulge in these few moments. He rocked with her slowly, allowing himself to revel in the feeling of having her in his arms.

"Hey," he said gently, pulling away slightly so he could tip her chin up with his finger. "I'm here now. You're safe now."

Her watery gaze bore into his, as she gave him a hint of a smile and nodded. His breath caught as he looked into those warm chocolate eyes that shone with the faith and trust she gave him. He could hear the pounding of his heart and felt as if he was being slowly pulled in by a magnet and was unable stop himself. His hands gently framed her face as his head dipped lower and his lips met hers.

His sense of self was rocked to the core as they kissed. A storm of emotions rose up in him. Fear, fury, protectiveness, tenderness…. Love. The old adage said that lightning only strikes once. But this was the second time he had felt it hit him with Lucy. He wondered if every kiss would be like this. He had loved Jessica and he grieved her, but he had never felt this level of emotion with her. It was as if he had always been holding a piece of himself back, waiting for this moment. Waiting for Lucy.

He pulled back reluctantly and searched her gaze once more, looking for any sign of regret. Lucy looked dazed, a likely mirror image to his own expression, he imagined. She lifted her hand to his cheek, the caress burning into his soul.

The sound of someone clearling their throat broke the spell that held them captive and they turned to see Ethan standing awkwardly to the side, looking embarrassed.

"I, uh, I'm Ethan. I'm guessing you're Wyatt." He held out his hand nervously.

Wyatt glared at him, ignoring his hand. "You little piece of shit. What makes you think I'd want to shake your hand after what you've done to her?"

"Wyatt!" Lucy cried out admonishing him, as the kid hurriedly backed up several steps with his hands in the air. "Ethan had no other choice. He's been trying to keep me safe and was trying to come up with a plan to get out of this place when you showed up!"

"You call this keeping you safe?!" He gestured to the injuries on her face.

" _Ethan_ didn't do this, Wyatt. _Noah_ did. He was just here about an hour ago. Noah's the one who bruised Ethan's face as well. He took off with the key, with the intentions of leaving me stuck in that damn closet. Ethan picked the lock AND BROKE ME OUT OF _THE GODFORSAKEN CABIN_." Lucy retorted, her voice raising until she was shouting the last few words at him.

He instantly felt chagrined. He hadn't even noticed the bruising on Ethan's face. He typically noticed details like that, he had to. Oftentimes his life and the lives of his teammates depended on his attention to detail. This only served to prove his point, his feelings for Lucy only clouded his judgment and placed her in even greater danger.

"I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions," He said contritely. He took a deep breath. "Thank you for keeping Lucy here safe, she means a lot to me and Rufus and we've been worried sick since she went missing. I'm Wyatt Logan." He held out his hand to the kid like an olive branch.

Ethan tentatively took the offered hand and shook it firmly. "Thanks sir. If you don't mind, could we maybe get the hell out of here?"

Wyatt nodded in affirmative, straightening and scanning the woods for any signs of movement. "I have a snow mobile hidden in the woods about a mile north of here. But before we go anywhere, we need to check the two of you for trackers. Since we suspect that Rittenhouse set this up as a trap, I also suspect they planted some trackers on you to lead them to us."

Lucy and Ethan immediately looked wary. "Trackers?"

"Yes. We'll need to go through all of your clothing and your shoes. I need you guys to inspect your skin as well. Feel for anything that might feel like a grain of rice just under the skin."

" _Under my skin?"_ Lucy squeaked, sounding horrified. Ethan just went pale, making his bruises stand out more markedly. Both immediately started itching at their skin, like he had suggested that they had scabies.

"Yes, RFID microchips. I'm sorry, I know. It sounds creepy as hell, but I'm not putting it past them, especially since Noah is a doctor. It only takes a syringe to insert one."

"I think I found one," Ethan interjected weakly. He motioned to a spot just behind his ear. "How do I get it out?"

Wyatt pulled out a knife from one of the pockets on his tactical vest and flipped it open. "I'm sorry," he apologized again. "But we're going to have to cut it out."

The kid nodded bravely. "I don't care what you have to do. Just get it out of me."

He moved behind Ethan and made as small of an incision as possible, then popped the chip out. He had to give Ethan credit, he didn't flinch once.

"Keep looking. I am willing to bet that they placed more than one for insurance purposes."

Lucy went white as she slipped her sleeve up and turned her arm over.

"There," she whispered. "Just below my bicep, on the inside of my arm." She shuddered and closed her eyes, while turning her head away, as he stepped closer.

He grabbed a lighter from another pocket and ran the blade over the flame, doing the best he could to sterilize it under the circumstances, then gingerly made an incision as Lucy winced. He wanted to hit something as he caused her pain. Preferably Noah. He imagined the satisfying crunching noise Noah's nose would make when his fist would finally make contact with it.

In all, Wyatt ended up removing three RFID microchips from each of them, and four more trackers from their clothing and shoes. He stepped over to the outhouse and dropped them all down the pit, along with the phones.

"You two, wait here. I'm going to head back to the snow mobile and bring it closer to the cabin. I don't want you guys attempting to trek through the snow in those clothes and shoes. It's much deeper in some parts where it drifted."

"What about you?" Lucy asked.

He smiled at her. "I skied in. I have a pair of cross country skies hidden just behind the cabin. I didn't want an engine to alert anyone and I also didn't want to trudge through the snow. Snow's a bitch in your boots."

"Well aren't you just a little snow bunny," she teased, attempting to make light of the situation.

"And a cute one at that," Wyatt winked as he smirked at her and Ethan groaned quietly in the background.

As he skied back to the snow mobile, he contemplated whether he was glad or pissed that he had just missed Noah. On one hand, it was an easier extraction without him around, but on the other hand, he desperately wanted to strangle the son of a bitch for what he had done to Lucy. In the end, he suspected it was just as well. He didn't want Lucy to witness what he would do to Noah when he finally caught up to him.

He reached the snow mobile and got on, but before heading back to the cabin, he drove to the end of the road where he had left the truck that had hauled the machine up. He heaved the dead body of the Rittenhouse guard that had been keeping watch from a blind in a tree into the driver's seat and adjusted the steering wheel, before placing a brick on the accelerator and put the car into gear. It rambled away slowly, then picked up speed, before suddenly exploding and catching fire.

When Wyatt had staked the area out earlier, he had immediately noted the sniper in the blind and an unusual pattern of packed snow alongside the road leading to the cabin and had correctly assumed that Noah or his Rittenhouse sycophants had placed IEDs, with the sniper as back up, if the bombs didn't do the trick of taking him out. No sense in letting them think he had gotten away with it. They'd figure out it wasn't his body in the truck fairly quickly, but any delay was in their favor. It was their mistake in thinking he would be stupid enough to use the road for his rescue mission. He had taken out another sniper about half a mile northwest of the cabin, but everything else had been clear.

He got back on the snow mobile and headed back to the cabin. He was just getting off when Lucy flew out of the cabin, her face paperwhite, followed closely by Ethan.

"Wyatt! Oh thank God! When we heard that…" Her voice trailed off weakly as her hand flew to her mouth.

 _Shit._ He had forgotten to warn them about them about the explosion.

"Rittenhouse set some explosives as a trap," He explained as quickly as possible. "I sent my truck over them, to throw them off our trail for a little longer."

She nodded mutely, still shaking.

"Hey, I'm okay," Wyatt said, reaching out and pulling her back into his arms, running his hands up and down her back soothingly. "I'm sorry I didn't warn you ahead of time. That was my mistake and stupid of me."

Lucy's trembling eased as she lifted her chin and squared her shoulders. "I'm ready to get the hell out of here, what are we waiting for?"

He smiled. She was back in fighting form and he felt like he would burst with pride.

"Your wish is my command. Let's get the hell out of here, you guys."


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I'm so sorry this took so long! Life got in the way, in the form of graduate school, then the news of the cancellation had me feeling dejected and unmotivated. Then, just as I had built up the determination to keep writing despite the cancellation, it was uncancelled. (Hallejuah!) So I was really stoked to keep writing and then... my dog bit me in the hand by accident when I was separating a fight, and there went my ability to type. :p So without further ado, here is Chapter 10, finally. (At least it's the longest one yet? Forgive me, please?)

 

Chapter 10

_Lucy_

Lucy took her eyes of the road to skim over Wyatt's sleeping form for a moment. He had fallen asleep after the first few hours on the road. Guilt pierced through her soul as she took in his gaunt face, the sharpened angles made more obvious by the warm glow of the occasional light along the highway. Deep purple bruising marred the area under his eyes, making it painfully obvious that he had barely slept since she'd gone missing. He'd been the same way when Flynn kidnapped her and took her back to 1893 and the World's Fair. Except then, she had been missing for less than 24 hours before they had been reunited. This time, she had been missing for nearly 3 days. Wyatt looked as if he had dropped 5 pounds since she had left Mason Industries and her world had fallen apart.

Even in sleep, he was restless, constantly twisting and jerking as if he was reliving his worst nightmares. He probably was, considering the PTSD. Occasionally he would utter sounds of distress under his breath before a particularly violent jerk and she had to fight to keep herself from waking him up. Lucy didn't even want to imagine what he'd been through throughout his military career. She knew that his childhood hadn't been all that warm either, though she didn't know much about it.

She glanced back in the rearview mirror to check on Ethan. It had taken a little of her more finely honed skills of persuasion, but she had insisted that they take Ethan along, rather than dropping him back off at his home. After what had happened, there was no way Rittenhouse would just let Ethan return to his everyday life. No. They would use him as a bargaining chip to get her to do what they wanted and God only knows what they would do to him in the process. They had to take him with them, she wouldn't have it any other way. His large form was curled up in the back seat, contorted in an awkward pretzel-shaped position that was all he could manage in the narrow cab of the truck. He slept in a peaceful slumber that she envied.

Lucy sighed as her eyes went back to the road. She had insisted on driving, not only because Wyatt had looked so exhausted, but because there was no way she could sit idly by after all that had happened yesterday. The rollercoaster of emotions she had experienced had provided a constant supply of adrenaline. She felt hyper alert, hyper aware, and beyond paranoid, half-expecting Noah or his goons to suddenly appear behind them. She had gone from terror at the hands of Noah to an unequivocal relief at Wyatt's appearance. And then he had kissed her, completely flooring her. She had actually gone weak at the knees. She hadn't even known that was a real thing outside of romance novels and that damned lightning bolt from Bonnie and Clyde's farmhouse had struck her again. Except she had no idea what he had experienced. She thought he had been about to say he loved her, but he had caught himself so fast, she couldn't be sure. By the time they had made their way to the truck he had hidden, he had completely retreated into himself and he was once again Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan, of the Delta Force unit. The man that had accompanied her and Rufus on their first few missions, not the man she had left at Mason Industries, who had been open to possibilities.

_It's for the best._

That had been made clear to her when she had heard the explosion of the IEDs Rittenhouse buried in the road. The devastating grief she had felt at what she had thought had been his death. It couldn't have been clearer to her that she loved him. And yet, it also couldn't have been clearer to her that his death was her fault.

_My fault. My fault. My fault._

The words rang incessantly in her head. The culmination of this moment had been due to her bloodlines. Her legacy as Rittenhouse royalty. It was because of her that Wyatt was even still involved. Or Rufus or Jiya. She was putting them all at risk by remaining on the team and yet, she couldn't continue to fight without them. She needed all of them. Wyatt, Rufus, Jiya, Denise, and even Flynn. This wasn't a fight she could win on her own and she was ashamed by her selfishness and her need. If any of them died, it would be on her conscience and would mar her soul even further.

Then Wyatt had shown up on that damned snowmobile, like nothing had happened. She had nearly collapsed with the utter relief at seeing him alive again. And then she had wanted to kick him where it counted for scaring her like that. But it had only cemented her determination to try to distance herself to protect him. He had been in danger because Rittenhouse had known how important he was to her. She couldn't allow them to continue to think that.

After the events of today, she didn't think she would sleep for a week.

Wyatt began to stir next to her. Twisting and readjusting his frame until he was sitting upright, yawning, while rubbing his hands over his scruff and his eyes. She found it unbearably charming.

_Who knew morning breath could be so attractive. You're seriously too far gone, Lucy. This is pathetic._

"How long have I been out for?" He asked, his voice husky from sleep.

_Damn it. Even his voice is attractive when he wakes up._

Her imagination ran wild with visions of them waking up in bed together. Her curled up on his chest, her cheek and hand resting over his heart, her leg sprawled over his hips. His arms holding her close in as she slept. His hands trailing lazily up and down her back as they slowly woke-

"Lucy? Hey! Earth to Lucy. How long have I been out?"

Flustered, it took her a few moments to process his request and to calculate the time they'd been on the road. She could feel the heat creeping up her cheeks as time ticked on awkwardly. So much for trying to keep her emotions in check. The bastard just smirked at her as if he knew where her thoughts had taken her.

"Oh! Um, well, ah, let's see. You fell asleep after we'd been on the road for about 3 hours and it's been about 8 hours since then." She stammered.

" _Eight hours?!"_

"Um, yeah. You kind of just dropped into a coma. You didn't even wake up when I stopped from gas twice."

He frowned at that, obviously perturbed that he hadn't been as alert as usual.

"Next time wake me up when we stop," he said brusquely. "There's nothing I can do to keep us safe if I'm asleep and caught unaware."

"About that…. Listen, Wyatt, I - I can't even begin to express how thankful I am that you came and rescued me. Us. I really can't. We were truly stuck in a hopeless situation and hadn't been able to figure a way out yet. But… I – you - I'm not your responsibility. You don't have to be the one protecting me at every turn."

Wyatt's head whipped around to look incredulously at her profile. She felt uneasy and avoided eye contact. She could practically feel the thunderclouds turning his eyes into a stormy blue color.

"Excuse me?" He asked quietly, in a dangerous tone.

"It's just…. I…. This is going to sound selfish, especially considering your history with Jessica, but I can't be responsible for you getting hurt or killed on my behalf. I just can't, Wyatt." She finished quietly.

"Lucy. What I do with my life is my responsibility. If I end up getting hurt protecting you, or even killed, that's on the bastard who did it. _Not_ on you."

She turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I should listen to my own advice. And it took me awhile, but I got it eventually. You're the one who helped me to come to the realization that I'm not the reason Jessica's dead and I needed to stop letting my grief and guilt take over my life. It's my choice to protect you and I'll continue to do so with every fiber of my being. Sorry, ma'am, but you have no choice in this matter."

Lucy felt a small smile forming at that, feeling her emotions warring inside her. This was the Wyatt she had come to know, but she didn't know how much longer he would stay before the stoic Master Sergeant Logan would reappear.

Wyatt took a deep breath and seemed to steel himself as he placed his hand gently over hers. "Lucy…. I wish I didn't have to tell you this and it's not a great time, but you deserve to know sooner rather than later. Ethan, your grandfather, – "

She interrupted him sadly. "I know. Carol told me they were sending a team to 'take care of him.' How did he die?" Lucy couldn't bring herself to call Carol her mother anymore. Their relationship had already been tense before this whole Rittenhouse business started, and her last encounter with Carol had destroyed any remaining feelings she had for her. She took a measure of comfort from the warmth of his hand covering hers.

"You knew my grandfather?" A quiet voice from behind them interrupted their conversation.

Lucy started, having forgotten Ethan was in the backseat, wishing she had been quieter. She met his eyes in the rearview mirror. "We both knew him briefly," she replied softly.

"What was he like? Dad always said he left him, but every time he talked about him, he'd get a real sad look on his face. He said I reminded him of his father."

She smiled again. "I actually had the same thought while we were at the cabin. Ethan, our grandfather was one of the bravest men I have ever had the honor of meeting."

Wyatt nodded in response, "I would have been proud to serve beside him in any lifetime."

"How did he die then? Was he killed? Who's Carol?"

"When I went to see him to see if he could help with locating Lucy, his caregiver told me that he had died of a major heart attack just hours before I stopped by. Based on the circumstances, we suspect that he was killed by Rittenhouse," Wyatt partially answered.

Tears began brimming in Lucy's eyes as she blinked them furiously back and focused on the road. Wyatt's hand tightened briefly in a reassuring grip.

"He deserved so much better," she whispered. She cleared her throat. "Carol is my mother. Apparently, she's a person who holds a powerful position in Rittenhouse. I didn't know until the day they kidnapped me."

She went on to tell him the story of how they had met Ethan Sr. The secrets that he had held, his desire to escape from under the claws of Rittenhouse, the immense courage he had demonstrated in leading a double life for the opportunity to take down Rittenhouse at her request. Giving up any chance of happiness for the cause. How Rittenhouse had used him and tossed him aside like a piece of trash. Lucy could feel herself sinking deeper into an abyss of despair and guilt as she went on.

Silence filled the truck after she finished.

"I'm not alone. It's not just me, it never was just me" she heard Ethan murmur almost inaudibly.

Lucy and Wyatt waited a for a few more beats of silence as Ethan collected himself.

"I always thought I was the only one in the family," he said wonderingly. "I've always known I was gay. Ever since I was a little kid, I just knew I was just different. All the boys would talk about their schoolgirl crushes, but I never felt the same way about girls.

He took a deep breath. "Dad recognized it right away, I guess, since he knew from seeing his own father. Around the time I went into the fifth grade, he began telling me that I had to pretend to like girls. That I could never, ever, tell anyone I was gay. I think that's why he always pressured me to play sports like football. He would set me up on dates with his friend's daughters. I always thought it was because he couldn't accept who I was and that he ultra-conservative and anti-gay. But maybe…. Maybe he was just trying to protect me."

"Knowing that my grandfather was the same way. Hearing how he lived…." Ethan's eyes welled up with tears. "It helps. It's awful knowing what happened to him. How Rittenhouse controlled him. But it helps knowing that I'm not alone, that I'm not different."

Lucy disentangled her hand from Wyatt's to take hold of Ethan's, hanging over the bench seat. She squeezed it earnestly, "You will never be alone. We have each other now. I will do whatever I can to protect you so that you can eventually live your own life." She distantly recognized that she was repeating the same words that Wyatt had spoken to her just minutes earlier, but she couldn't quell the protective instinct she felt. She had failed Amy. She refused to fail Ethan.

She glanced over at Wyatt, who nodded. "Welcome to the Time Team, kid," he said with a grin, grasping Ethan's shoulder. "You'll never be able to get rid of us now."

A broad smile began creeping over Ethan's face, clearing away the air of melancholy that had settled in the truck.

"I can't wait for you to meet Rufus and Jiya!" Lucy said eagerly, thinking about how excited her brother would be to meet the two computer geniuses. She gasped, "Speaking of Rufus, what's the status? Where did Emma jump?

"According to Flynn, 1933. San Fran-"

"The Golden Gate Bridge," she breathed, interrupting Wyatt. "Rittenhouse wants to sabotage the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge."

Wyatt nodded, "That was our best guess. Flynn said you wrote about in your journal."

_The journal! Shit!_

She had left it at Mason Industries in her locker after Flynn had given it to her, right before he had been arrested. She suspected there wasn't a chance in hell she'd be able to get it back anytime soon. She hadn't looked at it. Hadn't wanted to know what the future held for her.

_Coward._

"Lucy. Why is the Golden Gate Bridge so important?"

She refocused her thoughts back to the conversation at hand. "The Golden Gate Bridge was incredibly controversial at the time it was built. In addition to no one believing it could be done, it also cost $35 million in bonds to build and a lot of people expected that it would disrupt the shipping lines and ruin the environment. However, it ended up being one of the most iconic symbols that America has, representing hope during the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. Over the years, the bridge represented an economic profit for San Francisco, but even beyond that, several special districts joined with the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District, and prevented any centralization of government in the region. San Francisco has now become one of the epicenters of liberalism in America and heavily influences the presidential elections, the last Republic president that won San Francisco was Eisenhower, back in 1956. You cut off the Golden Gate Bridge's construction, you cut off the politic upheaval that it influenced, the economic boon to San Francisco, the symbol of hope and freedom that enticed people to move out West, and you cut the liberal movement off at the knees."

Lucy continued to rattle on as Ethan stared at her with his mouth slightly agape. Wyatt smirked. "You get used to it. Never underestimate the value of having a bossy know-it-all on your side." He turned to look back at her as she glared at him, "But seriously, I wish we had had this information before Flynn and Rufus jumped. What do you think Rittenhouse might be planning?"

"Do you know the date?" She asked, choosing to take the higher ground by not responding to his dig.

"February 24, 1933."

Lucy nodded. "The ground-breaking ceremony for the bridge was 2 days later, on the 26th. Most of the key players will be in attendance. They may be attempting an assassination, or several assassinations, or bribes, a bomb, it could be anything!" she ground out in frustration.

"Hey, much as I hate to admit it, but Flynn is a resourceful guy. He should be able to figure it out. And he's got the smartest guy on our team with him. Now we just have to hope they don't kill each other first."

She groaned, trying to imagine Flynn and Rufus working together as a team. "I can't believe you sent those two together."

"Didn't see that I had too many other choices. Wasn't about to trust Flynn to go after _you_ , especially since he figured that you set him up. Besides, I wasn't about to trust _anyone_ , except for myself on that mission, ma'am."

Lucy sighed again. _Flynn._ She hated that Agent Christopher had arrested him. God only knows the damage that had done to the tentative relationship they had started to build.

"Hey, Christopher tried to explain to him that you didn't set him up. He's an idiot, so it'll take some time to get through that thick Eastern European skull of his. But he'll get there. He was willing to work with us, so that's saying something at least. Now tell us more about the bridge."

She recognized the tactic for what it was, distraction. But she grabbed onto it gratefully. The remaining hours that passed by felt surreal. Driving along in a 1980's Ford pick-up truck as the sun rose, crossing the border, grabbing snacks and fuel at the lone gas stations along the highway, spewing historical facts about San Francisco, while trading jabs and insults back and forth. It almost felt like a family road trip. She was uncomfortably aware of how much she wished that this moment could be real life, instead of an intermission in the craziness that had become her actual life.

Soon, they wound their way up the Sierra de Juarez range, finally reaching the old farmhouse. Lucy let out a heavy groan of relief, taking time to stretch the kinks out of her legs and back after driving for so long. She and Ethan were helping Wyatt grab his gear out of the back of the pick-up, when Agent Christopher came to greet them.

"Wyatt. Lucy, glad to see you look okay. Ethan, nice to meet you." She nodded briefly at Lucy's brother to Lucy and Ethan's surprise. Before they could say anything, Agent Christopher forged ahead with a grim expression.

"It's Jiya. She started seizing as soon as the lifeboat jumped. It lasted for about ten minutes and now she's in a coma. I haven't been able to wake her."


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: This was an interesting venture. I wanted to be able to tackle whatever was happening for Jiya, so this is my take on it. And as an aside (that's a lot of A words in a row) Jiya is freaking hard to write for me. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

 

Chapter 11

_Jiya_

One moment Jiya was begging every deity in existence to keep Rufus safe on this jump as she watched the hatch close and the lifeboat start up. The next moment she was falling. She was distantly aware of her physical body falling to the floor and Agent Christopher anxiously asking if she was okay, but she couldn't respond. But it wasn't only her body that was falling, she had an odd sensation of feeling her consciousness tumbling down a black hole of…time?

Memories went flying past her, as if she was watching her life in reverse as an outsider. Like a VHS on rewind, she couldn't hear any of the sounds and the images were choppy with tracking lines shooting through them. She saw Rufus telling her he loved her, while she lay unconscious in arms. Placing the tracking device behind Lucy's ear as she worried about whether Rufus cared for her or not. The day that Flynn stole the mothership. Getting the job at Mason Industries. Graduating from college at the top of her class, with her parents cheering her on, her mother with tears streaming down her cheeks. Winning a national physics competition in high school. Getting bullied in middle school for looking "different" and going home crying with a bloodied nose. Riding her first bike. Taking her first steps. Crying in her crib as an infant.

Just as suddenly, she was slammed into another scene. It was like watching a movie, she could clearly see the interior of the lifeboat. Both Rufus and Flynn were reeling slightly, as they unbuckled their seatbelts.

"Just to be clear, we are _not_ on the same team," Rufus grumbled at Flynn as he pushed past him to open the hatch. "I'm only working with you because I have to, not because I want to. If you get yourself hurt you can rescue your own damn self and get back to the lifeboat. I'm not coming back for you."

"Duly noted," Flynn muttered with a raised eyebrow, following behind him.

Jiya tried to shout, calling Rufus's name desperately.

" _Rufus? Rufus! Can you hear me?"_

He paused briefly at the open hatch, looking around. "Did you hear something?"

Hope flared within Jiya, as she started shouting louder.

Flynn's eyebrow arched even higher. "Am I to presume your spidey senses are tingling?" He asked sarcastically. "Or perhaps, you're just having a psychotic break."

 _Dude, the guy has some epic caterpillars for eyebrows._ And she thought she had eyebrow game. He knocked hers right out of the water.

Rufus glared at him, as he shook his head and stepped out of the hatch.

Jiya wondered at the lack of noise around her. She had never realized the sheer amount of noise pollution that was present in her current time. There were no sounds of traffic in the background, no electronic hums. It was disconcerting, she felt like she had stepped into an alien world. Her view was muted, as if someone had put a sepia filter on everything she could see.

"Jiya. Come on. I need you to wake up, Jiya!"

Somehow, in the back of her head, she saw the farmhouse at the same time. She could see herself lying on a bed, with Agent Christopher bent over her, shaking her shoulders, insisting that she wake up. She watched as the agent left the room and came back with a cup of water that she splashed on her face, to no avail. She felt rather indignant and ignored her pleas to wake up, turning back to the scene unfolding before her.

Something was missing from the image in front of her. She recognized San Francisco, barely, due to the landscape, but something seemed off. Jiya gasped suddenly as she realized the bridge was gone. As if it had never existed.

_What the hell? Last time this happened to me, the bridge was at least under construction._

She vaguely recognized she should probably be panicking at this point, but her scientific mind was too curious to explore what was happening to be truly frightened at the moment. Besides, she wasn't in pain and she was with Rufus instead of worrying about him behind a computer screen.

"Alright. So where do we start?" Rufus asked Flynn.

Flynn grunted. "We start by walking to the Oakland pier. You couldn't have landed any closer?"

"Well, soooooor-ry. See, the lifeboat here doesn't have that whole invisible cloak magic that the mothership does. Had the mothership _not been stolen by you_ , maybe, just maybe!, we could be traveling in a bit more style and Rittenhouse could have the disadvantage of the giant, hulking, metal death-trap that the lifeboat is!" Rufus snapped.

Jiya groaned. This was going just splendidly. As much as she loved the guy, she wished that Rufus would pipe down and get with the program.

Flynn half rolled his eyes in exasperation and began walking, leaving Rufus to catch up to his long-legged stride.

"According to Lucy's journal, the ground-breaking ceremony takes place in two days. We should start with that," he commented when Rufus finally caught up.

"Have I ever mentioned how creepy it is that you somehow know all of our futures?"

Flynn shrugged. "It's helping us out now, isn't it?"

Rufus apparently couldn't argue with that and just tipped his head toward him as if to say, "Point to Flynn."

"So what does Lucy's journal say about this jump anyway? What should I expect?"

"Rittenhouse jumped to August of 1933 first and destroyed the steel that was being stored in Alameda, hoping that the combination of that and the McCormick Steamship collision would be enough to put them off from continuing the construction of the bridge. They jumped back to our timeline, found out that it wasn't, and immediately jumped to the time we're in now."

Rufus just stared at him for a couple of beats. "You mean, they've already been out here once, did their damage, came back, and left again. All in the time it's taken us to do this one jump?"

"Well, to be fair, they used Lucy's kidnapping as a distraction to allow them to do this. Plus Wyatt and Christopher wasted extra time breaking me out. You should really get on finding an A-bomb to create a battery for the lifeboat, like the mothership. Would save you some time."

"This isn't the mothership, you can't just configure a nuclear bomb into the _lifeboat._ "

"I'm sure Anthony could have figured a work around."

"Anthony is dead. _You killed him."_

"Huh. So I did. Looks like I picked the wrong pilot." Flynn lifted a shoulder carelessly as he picked his way through the brush.

Jiya bristled at that. She hadn't had any interactions with Flynn in the past until today, but it looked like all the stories about his callousness were true. The expression on Rufus's face was somewhere between incredulous and murderous.

"You're right. It was a waste of time. I'll make sure to tell them that as soon as we get back. I'm sure they'll appreciate the sentiment," Rufus responded hotly.

Flynn ignored him as he continued on his path to the pier and soon they fell into a rhythm that couldn't be described as companionable, but at least they weren't throwing verbal jabs at each other. Jiya would have never believed it if she hadn't seen it herself.

As they walked along in silence, she withdrew into herself, contemplating what on earth might be happening to her. She had heard the stories of pilots coming back in pieces after jumping to a time when they had already existed.

_Did something similar happened to me, just not as extreme? Maybe having four instead of three passengers caused some sort of damage to my molecular make-up, somehow fusing it with the aspects of the machine that allows it to jump in time? Did I somehow pull a Kurzweil and create some reverse-singularity shit? Why wasn't anyone else affected? And how am I able to be in two places at once?_

If she somehow bonded with the machine though, how was it possible that she was able to see Rufus this far from the lifeboat?

_Maybe I merged with Rufus, Wyatt, and Lucy too? Ew._

Jiya shuddered as she contemplated what that might mean if she just popped in on Lucy and Wyatt when they finally decide to _do_ something about all that sexual tension between them. She tried concentrating all of her focus on where the two of them might be, but remained where she was, much to her relief. Not that it didn't mean it wouldn't happen in the future, seeing as how she didn't actually have a clue what was happening to her.

Testing whether or not she could wander off on her own was next. She ventured away from Rufus and Flynn, but it was like she hit an invisible force field after about ten feet.

_Okay, so I'm definitely tethered to Rufus somehow. Is it just the people, or is it the machine as well?_

She took a deep breath and pictured where they had left the lifeboat. With a sudden burst, it was as if she suddenly had a multi-monitor set up in front of her, but a multi-monitor system that also had a virtual reality component which allowed her to step into any of the scenes at any time. Or at least, her consciousness could step into any of the screens, not her physical body. One screen displayed the scene at the farmhouse where Agent Christopher let out a worried sound as her physical body had another seizure. The middle screen showed the lifeboat sitting in the field where they had landed, a curious deer cautiously grazing near it. A third screen showed Rufus and Flynn continuing down their path in a tense silence.

Jiya wondered about the mothership as well. She had seen the bridge while it was under construction, not when it hadn't existed altogether. Flynn had mentioned that Rittenhouse had tried to sabotage the construction site first, to no avail. Was that what she had seen while she was still in the hospital? The CPUs between the mothership and lifeboat were linked, maybe that explained it. She closed her eyes and tried to picture where the mothership.

_*pop*_

Her eyes flew open as a fourth monitor appeared. She couldn't see the mothership itself and she imagined that Rittenhouse had engaged the cloaking mechanism, _because they had landed the mothership in the freaking middle of San Francisco_. That took some serious ovaries. She saw Emma emerge from a nearby building along with an older blonde woman who looked vaguely familiar.

_Lucy's mom maybe?_

A third person stepped outside of the building and Jiya felt herself stiffen.

_Holy crap! That's that Terminator guy! The dude who took Wyatt's place when they took out Capone. What was his name? Something Sullivan. Caleb Sullivan. Shit. This can't be good._

She stepped into the scene to get a better idea on what was going on.

"Are the charges set?" The older woman asked briskly.

Sullivan nodded curtly.

"Good. We got lucky when Logan didn't follow us on the last trip, but I'm sure they sent someone after us on this trip. You and Emma head out to the piers and watch for them. If you see them, kill them. Use whatever means necessary. I'm going to see if I can catch up with Michael O'Shaughnessy to see how far he's willing to go to keep this bridge from being built."

Emma and Sullivan acknowledged the woman silently and entered a nearby car. Jiya tried to follow them, but hit the end of her damned tether again. She panicked for several moments, desperately needing to get to Rufus to warn him somehow, before calming herself down for a few deep breaths.

_You're not stuck. You can get out of this scene. Just remember to breathe. Think about looking at a multi-monitor system._

Jiya closed her eyes and concentrated on thoughts of Rufus and found herself once again gazing at four different screens, grateful that she seemed to be getting some type of grasp on her situation, whatever it may be. She did a doubletake when she saw Flynn and Rufus. Somewhere along the way, they had found a new wardrobe. She swooned slightly when she got a closer look at Rufus in a pair of high-waisted, tapered trousers, a white bush shirt, and a tweed jacket that emphasized a distinct V-shape to his body. A newsboy cap completed the look. History may not have been kind to minorities, but its fashion sense was at least stellar. She tried yelling his name several times to no avail. She suddenly empathized with every character in every book who could see the future, but couldn't stop it from happening. Desperately, she took a closer look at the scene and realized they were arguing. Again.

"It wasn't enough that we had to steal their clothes? We had to steal their money too?" Rufus asked pointedly.

Flynn enunciated his words slowly and carefully, as if he was talking to a small child. "How exactly were you planning to get to San Francisco from here? By swimming? We have to get across by boat. Even if we were going to take the ferry, we would still have to pay a fare. You've been chasing me across time for months now, you know as well as I do that our currency won't pass for money here."

"Whoa. Back up. We're not taking a ferry?"

The former NSA agent rolled his eyes heavenward, as if asking for divine intervention. "If this is a trap set by Rittenhouse, where exactly did you think they'd be waiting for us? I, for one, don't intend to make it easy on them. I plan on chartering a small boat and mooring somewhere _other_ than the main harbor. And contrary to popular belief, I don't actually _like_ stealing things and murdering people when I don't have to, so if I can pay someone for the use of their boat, then I will."

Jiya heaved a huge sigh of relief, silently thanking Flynn for his presence of mind. She still feared for their lives, but at least she knew they wouldn't be walking straight into Rittenhouse's trap. They were safe. For now.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I'm so sorry for the ridiculously long delay on the next chapter! We moved up to Alaska and have been settling into our new jobs, so I haven't had the time to spend on this life I've wanted. But I'm back now! I hope you enjoy this chapter. :)

 

 

Chapter Twelve

_Rufus_

Rufus felt like he was in some sort of alternate universe. As if time travel wasn't bad enough, he was working with Flynn? Like full on, working with him as a team. He felt disoriented without Wyatt and Lucy to back him up, but at least it seemed like Flynn was legitimately trying to accomplish the mission. And the man hadn't killed anyone yet, so that was a plus. He could even respect Flynn's logic after spending a day with him. When it came down to it, after hot-wiring and stealing yet another person's car, Rufus had probably committed the most egregious crime on this mission so far.

On top of everything else, he was pretty sure he was losing his mind. Maybe it was the stress of time travel, maybe it was the Rittenhouse ordeal, his worry for Lucy, or the panic he felt whenever he thought about Jiya unconscious or seizing. Whatever it was, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching him. The feeling had passed for a few hours, but it was back, like an itch he couldn't scratch, even invading his dreams last night. He could've sworn he had heard a voice right after they had landed, but it had been soft and indistinct. It might've just been the sounds of the lifeboat shutting down, but he couldn't quite convince himself.

_The plot to Batman Begins wasn't so farfetched after all. Rittenhouse is probably poisoning our water supply somehow and driving us all insane._

He shook his head, amused with himself, then hurried to keep up with that long-legged bastard. They had spent an uncomfortable night hunkering down in someone's boathouse and the kinks in his back and neck were brutal. Flynn didn't seem to have a single problem with them and that made him hate him a little bit more. Between Flynn and Wyatt, Rufus figured he was going to drown in testosterone and masculinity. Thank God Jiya seemed to love him for his brain. That being said though, at least all of these missions were forcing him to be in better shape, if only for the incredible amounts of walking he had to do.

They had arrived at Crissy Field early that morning. Considering the date Emma had chosen to jump back to, they figured that the groundbreaking ceremony was the best bet for whatever it was that Rittenhouse was planning to do. The field was a ghost town, except for a few lone homeless people, passed out along the waterfront. Flynn suspected Rittenhouse was planting explosives, because well, that's what he would do. And that was just all kinds of disturbing to think about.

According to the skimpy file they had brought with them, there would be at least 100,000 people there. That was a lot of lives on the line and he was terrified. He hadn't liked the idea of blowing up Rittenhouse on that last mission, let alone putting 100,000 innocent lives at risk.

"Found one." Flynn's grim tone interrupted his thoughts as he removed several blocks of C4 from the grandstands.

Rufus's heart dropped to his feet. He had been hoping against hope that it wouldn't be explosives. That maybe it was just a sniper. He couldn't believe he now lived in a reality where the best-case scenario was a freaking sniper, but it was what it was. And when he realized  _Emma_  was one of the people who were willing to accept so many innocent lives as collateral damage, he wanted to vomit. Not even as collateral damage. C4 in the grandstands meant that Rittenhouse was  _purposely_  targeting civilians. He had been good friends with Emma, even crushed on her a little when she was hired on at Mason Industries. Before Jiya had been hired on of course. They had gotten along well and ribbed each other often. He had admired her courage to be a test pilot, and he had been heartbroken when he thought she was dead. The shock and relief he had felt when they had found her  _alive_  was nothing short of mind-blowing. And now this. He shook his head to himself as he continued searching.

After four hours of surreptitiously canvassing Crissy Park, they removed C4 from the grandstands, the stage, under the VIP seating in the area in front of the stage, and at various points along the waterfront path. Rufus had to admit he was starting to feel relieved that Flynn had joined the team after all. He looked in places Rufus would never have even considered.

"So…. Is that it? Do we head home? Or wherever home is now?" Rufus asked. It felt oddly anti-climactic. The first mission he had been on that hadn't been wrought with danger, arrested, or detained by other unsavory characters. They hadn't been stopped by any police or any officials despite their rather conspicuous before as they combed the field. They had just stolen some clothes, a car, chartered a boat, and casually removed some explosives. No big deal. Then Flynn burst his bubble.

"No. This has gone far too smoothly. If I were them, I would have set up an insurance policy. A sniper to take out the key players in the construction of the bridge. And if our file reads correctly, most of them will be here tomorrow. We can't leave until we make sure that they survive in the event."

Rufus sighed heavily. It was too much to ask for to have a mission be simple. "What do we do until then?"

"We look for them. They're obviously not here, otherwise they would have tried taking us out already. My guess is that they're waiting for us to show up at the harbor. So we go to them."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold the phones. You want to  _confront_  Rittenhouse?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Have we met? My name is Garcia Flynn. My wife and daughter were murdered by some assholes called Rittenhouse two years ago. Since then, my life has become all about vengeance and destroying the people who destroyed my life. How do you do?" Flynn held out a hand as if to shake in greeting.

_Okay, I take it all back. I am not at all relieved that he's on this mission._

Rufus just glared at him. "Hello. Computer geek here. Not real great with confrontations."

"Oh please. You've been on how many missions so far? Sixteen? You somehow managed to escape the  _Alamo,_ a plan that I thought was foolproof for sure."

"Yeah, thanks for that reminder that you've tried to kill us  _sixteen_  times."

"Don't be over-dramatic. I wasn't trying to kill you guys. I was trying to take down Rittenhouse, but you guys kept getting in the way. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Oh, I don't know.  _Maybe stop trying to fuck with history?_ "

The big Eastern European just grinned. It was disconcerting, Rufus wasn't used to seeing the man look  _cheerful._ The fact that he was grinning while talking about killing him and his friends made it all the more creepy.

"Please stop that. It just makes you look deranged."

Flynn's grin only grew broader at that.

Rufus threw up his hands in the air. "Fine! Let's go. Lead the way."

They arrived at the harbor a few minutes later. As much as he hated time travel, Rufus had to say that he didn't mind the absence of traffic.

"So now what?"

"Now we look for people who seem out of place. We're at a disadvantage here. They know what we look like, but we have no idea who they might be, with the exception of Emma."

"And if we find them?"

"Then we'll have a little chat." Flynn patted the left side of his jacket, where his gun sat in a shoulder holster.

_There's the Flynn I remember._

Rufus shuddered internally as he tried to avoid thinking about what Flynn might do to Rittenhouse if he found them. But it was like being told not to think about a pink elephant. You immediately start thinking about pink elephants. His imagination ran wild.

They split up and casually walked along the harbor. At least Flynn looked casual. Rufus felt like he was at a middle school dance, standing on the fringes, looking desperate and awkwardly out of place. The sweat beading on his forehand was the final touch.

 _Yeah, because_ that _doesn't look real obvious. Sweating in the middle of winter._

He suddenly stiffened as he felt the distinct sensation of eyes boring into his back. Far more intense than the feeling of being watched he had had before. He slowly swiveled his head around and caught the flash of red hair to his left.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

_The motion of Emma's hair._

_The widening of his eyes as he recognized Sullivan standing next to her._

_The slow rise of Sullivan's gun._

_The distant screams of the crowd as they scattered away from Sullivan._

_Someone forcefully yelling his name._

Suddenly everything snapped back together as he took a thunderous blow from the side and fell to the ground. He felt a crushing weight on his chest and a sharp pain in his head.

_So this is what it's like to die. Jiya, I'm sorry. I love you. I'm so so sorry._

Everything went black.

 

* * *

 

 

A cacophony of inventive swears with a distinct Eastern European accent surrounded him.

Rufus groaned and opened his eyes. A dark brooding face loomed over him. "I need you to wake up, Rufus. You need to get us out of here. Now."

His vision blurred, then cleared up to reveal the inside of the lifeboat.

_I'm in Hell. I never believed in a higher power, but there's no other explanation. Flynn's here, there's no way he would have made it to Heaven. God, are you telling me that my punishment is seriously being stuck in the lifeboat with Flynn for all of eternity? Where did I go so wrong in my life?_

"You're not dead. You're not in Hell, although I can understand how you came to that conclusion, considering I was the first thing you saw," came from an amused, but pained voice above him.

_Shit. Did I say that out loud?_

"Yes, you said that out loud. You took a nasty hit to the head when I knocked you out of the path of Sullivan's bullet. I suspect you're still gathering your senses. However, the police were on our tail and we need to get back to the farmhouse."

Rufus glared at the bastard. "How did we get back to the lifeboat?"

"I managed to take down Sullivan. I don't know if I killed him or not, but he's out of the game for now. I grazed Emma, but she got away. I dragged you out of there and stole a car. It's been chaos. You've been out for about half an hour. Now kindly get us out of here, before we get stuck explaining what the lifeboat is to the San Francisco police department."

"What about the bridge?"

"Sullivan's down, he won't be able to take on the role of a sniper. Emma may be a great shot, but she's not sniper material. I doubt Lucy's mom is either. I don't know who else they brought with them,  _but we don't have the time for this."_

Flynn's voice sounded slightly off. Almost breathy. He was taking small shallow breaths.

 _He_ has _been hauling my not-light body weight around for the past half hour, but still…_

Rufus squinted his eyes for a closer look. Flynn's face was pale with beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.

"Are you okay, man? You look and sound a little out of sorts."

"Just peachy thanks. Aside from taking a bullet to the chest when I knocked you out of the way, a fractured rib, and what I suspect is a collapsing lung, I'm just fine.  _Now can we go already."_ Flynn hissed with a grimace.

_Holy fuck._

Rufus's mouth dropped open and he just sat and stared at Flynn stunned for a few moments, before common sense and panic kicked in. He frantically buckled himself in and began flipping switches, listening to the lifeboat come to life.

_Holy shit. Flynn took a bullet for me and saved my life?_

Rufus wasn't sure how to wrap his brain around this new development. He didn't know how to reconcile the Flynn he worked with on this mission with the terrorist he had been pursuing for the last year who had him shot. But a life was a life, and he wasn't about to let Flynn die for saving a life.

So they jumped.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I figured the least I could do after such a long absence is two chapters in two days, right? This one is for all the Lyatt shippers out there.

 

Chapter 13

_Lucy_

Lucy sighed as she headed to the bathroom. She had spent two hours at Jiya's bedside, trying to wake her up with no success. She had been awake for more than 24 hours and was just about dead on her feet, but she desperately needed a shower to rid herself of the sensation of Noah's touch and the grime of the cabin.

She cranked on the shower to scalding and slowly stepped out of her clothes and into the stream of water, breathing in the warm steam. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the shower wall, giving herself a few moments before straightening her spine and grabbing one of the loofahs that someone had packed.

_Had to have been Jiya. Definitely not one of the guys and I just can't picture Agent Christopher with a loofah._

She smiled to herself at the sheer absurdity of her thoughts as she lathered herself with soap, stopping suddenly at a sharp twinge of pain in her arm.

Lucy stopped and frowned, trying to pinpoint the site and cause of the sensation, then froze as she stared at the small incision on her arm where one of the RFID chips had been removed.

_*flash*_

_David Rittenhouse sentencing Wyatt and Rufus to death, then turning to her, declaring that she was to be brought to his bedchamber._

_*flash*_

_Noah coming up behind her, in his boxers, putting his ring on her finger, brushing her hair back, and placing a kiss on her neck as she fought against recoiling._

_*flash*_

_Noah brutally slapping her across the face. Threatening to rape and impregnate her. Slamming the door and locking her in the closet as he walked away whistling._

_*flash*_

She brought her hand up to her mouth and tried to stifle a sob, but only reopened her cut lip again. The taste of blood rushed into her mouth and she sank down to the floor of the shower, sobs wrenching from her chest, as she buried her face in her hands. She had managed to keep her thoughts at bay for so long, but couldn't anymore as exhaustion overwhelmed her.

"Lucy?" Wyatt's voice and a soft knock sounded from the bathroom door.

She couldn't bring herself to answer through her tears.

"Lucy, it's just me. I'm coming in."

"No, it's okay. I'm fine, Wyatt. I'll be out in a few minutes," Lucy managed to stammer out. She didn't think she'd ever told a more blatant lie in her life.

"You're not fine, Lucy. I could hear you crying from three rooms down the hall."

_God, if that wasn't embarrassing…._

She heard the door knob jostle, then open a few moments later as Wyatt picked the lock and entered the bathroom, gently closing the door behind him.

"It's just me, Luce. I promise, I won't look," he said softly, as he turned off the water to the shower. He tenderly wrapped her up in a towel as he averted his eyes, then picked her up off the floor in his arms. He sat back down on the ground, cradling her to his chest, as he grabbed another towel from the rack and began drying her hair soothingly.

Lucy turned her head into his chest and began to weep in earnest again, feeling safe and comforted in his arms.

"Shhhh. It's all right, I have you. I won't let anyone hurt you," Wyatt breathed into her hair as he rocked her gently.

"I – I can't – The memories," she cried quietly.

"I know, sweetheart. I know." Empathy poured out of Wyatt as she realized that he did know, he probably knew what she was going through better than anyone else on their team.

"Hey, look at me," he gently tilted her chin to look into her eyes. "I've got you. We're going to get through this, just breathe. That's it. Start small, you've got this. What color are my eyes?"

Lucy startled. What kind of question was that?

"What color are my eyes, Lucy?"

"Blue," she said softly, gazing into them.

"Good. What sounds do you hear, Luce?"

She frowned, concentrating.

"The pipes running. Water dripping from my hair. Your heartbeat."

"That's it. What do you feel?"

"The towel around my body, your chest moving with every breath. Your arms supporting me." Sudden heat flashed through Lucy as she struggled with the transition from abject despair and fear to the feelings of love and warmth. She suddenly had a heightened awareness of being naked in his arms, apart from the towel, but his gaze never wavered from her eyes.

"I'll always be here to support you, Luce." Wyatt bent his head, resting his forehead against hers gently, gauging her emotions. "Always." His face lifted as he pressed a light kiss to her forehead.

She reached up with her hand and caressed his cheek, hearing a sharp intake a breath from Wyatt at her touch. "Thank you," she said softly, "For being there, always. For helping me cope with this insane chaos."

He nodded somberly. "I'm not going to lie. This will probably get worse before it gets better. And it will hit you during the most inconvenient times. But right now what you need, more than anything, is some sleep. Let's get you to bed." He shifted, adjusting her in his arms, then rose, carrying her out of the bathroom, to the bedroom she had picked out earlier.

"I took the liberty of stopping by your house and packing some clothes for you when we found you missing, in addition to the duffle bag you had at the cabin." he said, while digging through a suitcase that she recognized. He came up with an over-sized t-shirt that was one of her favorites and a pair of sweats, handing it to her, before turning his back so she could get dressed. She hurriedly dropped the towel and slipped into the clothes, before crawling into the bed.

Wyatt turned back around, assessing her with his eyes. He nodded, seemingly satisfied, "I'm going to go ahead and let you get some rest now."

Lucy felt a sudden moment of panic at the thought of her memories returning as he started heading for the door. "Wyatt?"

He paused, one hand on the door. "Yeah?"

She hesitated.

_To hell with it._

"Stay with me tonight? I don't know if I'll be able to sleep by myself."

Wyatt froze for a moment, before shaking it off. "Of course, I will," he said softly, coming over to the bed. He sat with his back to the headboard as she nestled into his warm embrace. She placed her ear against his chest and closed her eyes, listening to the steady sound of his breathing and the slight uptick in his heart rate, letting it soothe her frazzled nerves. She felt truly secure for the first time in weeks.

She slept.

 

* * *

 

 

Lucy stretched languidly, snuggling deeper into her pillow, before realizing something wasn't normal - there wasn't any give to her pillow. She opened her eyes in a panic and found herself entwined around Wyatt, who was sleeping peacefully, with one arm thrown over his eyes, and another wrapped securely around her. One leg was entangled with his, while the other was thrown across his hip. Her entire upper body was cuddled up against his chest. The events of last night rushed back to her and she cringed inwardly, ashamed of her weakness, embarrassed that Wyatt witnessed it.

She was delicately disentangling herself from Wyatt's body when she heard a sudden cry from Jiya's room. He bolted upright, practically throwing Lucy off the bed.

"What's going on? Where am I? Oh shit! Lucy? Are you okay? What am I doing here?" The words babbled from Wyatt's mouth.

Lucy was secretly amused. The babble tended to be Rufus's thing, not Wyatt's. Still the situation was somewhat embarrassing. "I, ah, well, last night…." Her voice drifted off as she looked down.

Wyatt's face softened. "I remember now. Hey, you doing okay?" He reached out to touch her arm.

She nodded, suddenly overcome by shyness. "Yeah, thanks. That was probably the best night of sleep I've had in ages." Her face flamed red.

_What was I thinking? Why did I admit that out loud?_

He smiled, "At your service, ma'am," The smile widened into his trademark smirk as she shoved him.

“Seriously though. Thanks for getting me over the hump. Again.” Lucy smiled wryly back at him.

Suddenly, there was another cry from Jiya's room, "Rufus! RUFUS, NO!"

Wyatt and Lucy shot out of the room into the one across the hallway. Agent Christopher was already there, trying to shake Jiya awake. Ethan was standing uncertainly in the doorway. She stepped around him and immediately went to Jiya's side.

"Jiya! Jiya, come on, honey. Wake up! It's just a nightmare." She gently shook Jiya's shoulder with urgency when she began seizing again.

Lucy's heart climbed into her throat as she felt Ethan's hand close around her arm and guide her away.

"She's seizing, we have to let it take its course. Her head is supported, if we restrain her, we could do more damage than good."

She nodded blindly through her tears. For the first time, she saw Agent Christopher look helpless as she stood back from the bed. She felt Wyatt's presence behind her, as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Jiya continued to seize for a few more minutes, then her body went limp again.

"Her body will be exhausted, rest is the best thing for her right now," Ethan said softly. The others filed out of the room quietly as she sat down in the chair next to Jiya's bed and took her hand.

"Oh Jiya," Lucy sighed. "We need you to come back. I don't know what Rufus will do without you. I don't know what any of us will do without you. You haven't even met the newest member of the Time Team yet." She smiled as she wiped away a tear. "That's right. Wyatt and I picked up a new member and you'll never guess who it is. You're going to have to wake up if you want to find out who it is and I know how curious that mind of yours is."

She spent the next half hour at Jiya's bedside talking to her softly and holding her hand. Unexpectedly she felt her hand twitch. Lucy's eyes swept up quickly to Jiya's face and she went limp with relief when she saw her eyes flicker, then barely open.

"They're coming back," Jiya whispered hoarsely. "Rufus... Gunshot…."

"It's okay, you just had a nightmare," Lucy said softly.

"Not…nightmare…. Can't…breathe…." Jiya whispered, before her eyes fluttered shut again. But this time, she gave the impression that she was exhausted and sleeping, not in a coma.

Lucy looked up as the farmhouse began to shake. She quickly glanced out the window to see Agent Christopher and Wyatt sprinting for the barn. She leapt to her feet and ran out after them.

Ethan shouted after her, "Where is everyone going? What's happening?"

"The lifeboat! They're on their way back!" She felt him on her heels as she skidded to a stop in the barn's double doors. Dust and hay pelted them as the sound of metal gears clanging against one another announced the lifeboat's arrival.

With a roar, the lifeboat landed heavily in the middle of the barn. She could sense Ethan's stunned wonderment behind her. She glanced back and grinned at the look on his face.

"That – That's a time machine," he stuttered, pointing at the lifeboat

Lucy felt tears welling up in her eyes at his response and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Yes, yes it is, Ethan. Those were the exact words our grandfather said when he first saw the lifeboat jump." She turned back to look at the lifeboat with eager anticipation as the hatch rose slowly.

Flynn was the first to carefully climb out of the lifeboat, with a grimace on his face. His hair was disheveled, dirt covered his face, his black coat was rumpled and she had never seen a better sight in her life. She had felt insurmountable guilt and outrage when he had been arrested, especially after having the opportunity to understand him a little better. Wyatt had told her they had broken him out, but she couldn't fully believe it until she saw him. Without a second's hesitation, she flew forward to give him a quick hug.

"I'm so glad you made it out. I swear to you, I didn't know I had been followed that day," she whispered fervently.

Flynn's eyes bulged slightly and he took a few steps back in surprise as he looked around wildly. He awkwardly patted her on the back a couple of times, as if he had no idea how to handle affection. There was an odd grimace on his face as she stepped away and he immediately grabbed his side. That's when she noticed the ashen quality to his face. She frowned at him briefly and glanced down to find her shirt covered in blood.

"Flynn? Flynn!" she cried, as he slowly crumpled to the ground. She glanced up quickly as Rufus scrambled down the hatch to Flynn's side.

His voice was grim. "Flynn took a bullet for me on this last mission. Luckily it ricocheted off his rib and fractured it instead of hitting his lungs, but he's pretty sure his lung is collapsing. He needs medical attention."


End file.
